When your band already features a musician who has so much experience, and has played with some of the greatest musicians of this century, a real life version of the "Jimmy the Lips" character from Roddy Doyle's excellent book The Commitments, what do you do? How about bringing in another equally well-traveled and experienced musician, to help put out a live album. Sounds like a pretty superb recipe to me.
The in-band member I am referring to is Buddy Cage, a pedal steel player who can count Sly Stone, Rick James, Jerry Garcia and a certain Bob Dylan among his previous collaborators. He played on "Blood on the Tracks", a feat that if there were any justice would guarantee free beer in any Pub, Bar or Tavern in the civilized world.
The guest musician is Vassar Clements, a 71 year old fiddle virtuoso, who has been in the business some 50 years, has 5 Grammy nominations and has over 2000 recorded performances to his name. He can name Paul McCartney and Grateful Dead amongst the long list of musicians he has shared studio and stage time with.
Add to these two a whole plethora of talented musicians, a horn section, an excellent songwriting talent in John Markowski, dueling male and female vocalists, and a couple of really interesting covers and you have the makings of a fine album.
I shall avoid the obvious Grateful Dead comparisons, Stir Fried are talented enough to deserve a lot more than that. Certainly though the music will appeal to similar audiences, that said Stir Fried are a lot more accessible than references to the Dead, and steel pedal guitars and violins may suggest. They are first and foremost a many legged groove machine, sambaing and sauntering around a collection of feel-good tunes. The kind of music that works well in small intimate hot clubs, but even better in open field festivals as the sun shines and the wine pores.
A particularly strong point of the band is the inter-play between the voices of John Markowski and Joanne Lediger. Too few bands realize what you can achieve having two singers to share the load, especially when they combine as well as these too. On both "Get the Money", an original composition, and the delightful cover of the Jagger/Richards tune "Dead Flowers" their voices mesh, contrast and then come back to each other, like quarrelsome lovers. Worth the price of admission on its own, as someone more original than me once said.
The rest of the album is equally pleasing, one of the best live recordings of a smaller band it has ever been my pleasure to listen to. It starts with a 25-minute mix-and-match between several songs, something they manage without seeming self-indulgent. They also pull out the old favorite, "Walkin' the Dog", giving it just enough of a spin to keep it fresh.
Throughout Vassar's fiddle pulls it one way and then another, accompanied by innovative percussion, sprightly guitars and some sweet horn playing. Musically you can be in absolutely no doubt that these people are having a ball up there. A well constructed live album that balances the experimental with the familiar, to produce a CD that should find its way into the collections of a lot of people who love music. Very much recommended.

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