Portland outfit bring raucous Americana to Monroe’s Backstage

Date Published: {J}

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the Water Tower Bucket Boys come to town on Thursday next, March 10, to play The Backstage Bar in Monroe’s. The band’s raucous take on bluegrass is crafted by Kenny Feinstein (guitar/mandolin/harmonica and vocals), Josh Rabie (fiddle/ guitar/harmonica and vocals) and Corey Goldman (banjo/guitar and vocals). Corey takes the phone call from The Connacht Tribune just after the band have arrived in the UK.

“What time is it now, about 10 o’clock?” he asks. “I’d reckon [we got here] about three hours ago. It’s been pretty wild – we stayed up all night back home and we’ve been travelling since then. We’ve got to drive up to Bristol tonight and play a gig there tonight, so no rest for the weary!”

Corey then goes on to explain how Water Tower Bucket Boys formed and honed their technique as buskers.

“Josh and Kenny are more or less the main founding folks,” he says.

“They started playing music together at the end of high school. We all ended up at the same uni and it just went from there.”

“We started playing on street corners and stuff, went through some line-up changes for quite a while before it settled down to what it is now,” he adds. “There are three of us, and we’ve kind of got a rotating cast of bass players – we’ve Kyle McGonagle now, he’s been touring with us for the past six months or so. Doing a great job.”

Corey Goldman believes that playing on the street has made them stronger as live performers.

“When you play on the street, you really have to figure out how to engage with the crowd,” he says. “No one’s there to see you, you have to convince them that what you’re creating is a real musical experience.

“It still really influences our live performance. We make it a real show; try and play good music and keep people entertained. Because that’s what it’s all about really.”

On a previous trip to the UK, Corey and the band hit pay-dirt as street players.

“One of the best days we ever had was in Brighton,” he recalls. “The first time we came over we set up on this corner, stopped traffic, crowds gathering out in the middle of the street. When you’re busking in America no one really cares, but over here it seems like people are ‘oh wow!’ if you’re a good player.”

“People were buying us drinks; we got invited into the pub across the street for a meal and made 300 quid in 45 minutes. It’s tricky to find the right spot but when you do it’s really good fun.”

The enthusiasm for American roots music in Ireland and the UK means Corey loves the Bucket Boys’ trip across the Atlantic.

“I feel the reception that we get is a lot more excited than it is back home,” he says. “There are a lot of people playing with this sort of sound, and I think people are a little jaded by it in America. Not that there’s not plenty of people who are super excited, lots of great bands and lots of great crowds but it’s harder to rise above the mish-mash of people who are playing bluegrass-inspired music.

“What you call Americana, we would break down into lots of sub-categories,” he explains. “When you come over here, people are really stoked about the sound. Whether it’s bluegrass, country-blues, ragtime, or any of the stuff we would think as totally different genres, people are open to group it all together. I really appreciate that.”

Sole Kitchen, Water Tower Bucket Boys’ latest album, sees the band at their toe-tapping best.

“That was recorded with my buddy, Mike Herrera,” says Corey. “Back in the nineties, he was in a kind of country-punk band called Tumbledown. He was interested in the crossover between country music and punk rock. We thought it would be fun to work with him.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.