Kweskin, Jim
Doing Things Right
Name-checked in the new Timothee Chalamet film A Complete Unkown as well as by Bob Dylan himself in the Martin Scorsese-directed film Rolling Thunder Revue, Jim Kweskin was a key figure in the 1960s folk revival, sharing bills with Janis Joplin and the Doors and playing Newport Folk Festival. NY Times said, "The rock historian Ed Ward went so far as to place the Kweskin Band alongside the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Byrds as that period's most influential groups." USA Today calls him a "superb finger-picking guitarist and dedicated explorer of the arcane." On Doing Things Right, Kweskin assembles The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue for a repertoire that melds folk music, old time country, traditional jazz, blues, ragtime, western swing, New Orleans music, and American Songbook. Kweskin also calls on friends including singer Samoa Wilson (whose voice NY Times calls "sweet, effortless"), bassist Matthew Berlin (Howard Armstrong), blues singer Racky Thomas, and Annie Linders (of Annie & The Fur Trappers), pianist Sonny Barbato, virtuoso fiddle player Matt Leavenworth (Mary Gauthier, Peter Wolf), and pedal steel great Cindy Cashdollar. The resulting album is sheer joy. RIYL: Maria Mudlaur, Dave Van Ronk, John Sebastian