Album Notes

If Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters could have pulled out strings and horns and honked their own big band breaks like Benny Goodman and Stuff Smith sitting in with a hot backwoods jug band, they would have sounded something like Housetop: Southern Vermont’s four-piece harmony singin’ swingin’ string band.

Peter Siegel, known as a songwriter and space-age vaudvillian, contributes his chunking, bluesy archtop guitar rhythm and his enviable high tenor voice. Erica Morse drives the low end on the upright bass, while crooning in an inimitable sisterly blend with Naomi Morse, also renowned for her strong, fiery fiddling. Anna Patton rounds out the quartet, harmonizing with her smooth alto and deftly swinging on the clarinet.

Housetop has developed an original recipe: bit of blues, a pinch of western swing, a large dose of humor, tunes penned by anybody from Fats Waller to the Roches and their own originals. They have been dishing it out in concerts and festivals all over the North East, including Jay Ungar’s Dancing on the Air, The New London traditions festival, and the Saratoga Dance Flurry.