Album Notes

Lonesome Dan Kase, a dynamic performer of classic country blues, teams up with Mandolin and Washboard to form the Crush Collision Trio. Performing classics from the likes of Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller, and Mississippi Shieks, the Trio also performs five original songs by Lonesome Dan.

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"Crush Collision Trio makes you nostalgic for the gritty scratch of a needle across vinyl" City Pages


CRUSH COLLISION REVIEW

Lonesome Dan Kase has been a Thursday night fixture at Dusty's, a friendly northeast watering hole, for a couple of years now. His Woody Guthrie via the Mississippi Delta brand of foot stomping, bourbon-soaked country blues has caught the ears of everyone from northeast old-timers to hipster uptown ex-pats who are beginning to call the area home.

The Crush Collision Trio features Kase on acoustic guitar and vocals. He is joined by accomplished mandolin player Matt Yetter. Mikkel Beckman provides the percussion by scraping a washboard and playing refrigerator parts.

This is raw, stripped down music. Their 13-track debut CD features old country blues standards from the likes of Mississippi Shieks and Sleepy John Estes, as well as fiveoriginals penned by Kase. The spirits of Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson can be felt throughout the album.
"Milkcow Blues" is a love song to the genre, and Yetter's mandolin picking truly shines on this track.

"Lonesome Blues", an ode to a broken heart, is a Kase original and is one of the album's standout tracks. The song features some awesome washboard/foot stomping breakdowns and has an infectious melody. The album's best song, "Jericho", is a punk as a romp through the Old Testament, replete with violent imagery and strong,
passionate singing by Kase.

Kase, Yetter, and Beckman unearth the roots of any style of music worth its weight in piss and vinegar on this amazing album. The absence of bass and drums is not at all missed, and would probably only detract from the raw power of the music that these three create. Kase's five original songs more than stand up to, and in some cases surpass, those of the predecessors who have so clearly influenced him. The album's themes of heartbreak, violence, and redemption and the intensity with which these songs are played should resonate with all music fans. The Crush Collision Trio have managed to impeccably capture the essence of all that rock music is built on, and in doing so have created one of the best albums of 2003.

Todd Harrison