Like stepping into a time machine, The Best Westerns recorded their new album Stoughton, fittingly, at the historic opera house. Western swing, the hillbilly jazz hybrid made popular by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, gives the Best Westerns a name and a jumping off point.
As players and vocalists, these half dozen ringers are among the best you’ll stumble across. Originally from Appleton, bassist Mark Hembree spent five years touring with bluegrass legend Bill Monroe. Likewise, Beaver Dam native and Western Swing Society Hall of Fame member, steel guitarist Eddie Rivers, spent over a decade with Asleep at the Wheel.
With four members sharing vocal duties, the band is a kaleidoscope of personalities. Maybe this is what the omnivorous term “Americana” should sound like. From shuffles honky-tonk ballads to Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home,” the band veers, allowing members’ virtuosic turns equal time with tight ensemble grooves. Anna Brink’s piano dances, Mark Roeder’s fiddle swoops and soars and Beezer Ferguson’s hollow body guitar darts and comps. Drummer Andy Pagel punctuates songs with humor as well as keeps the beat.