Featuring the playfully gritty, if occasionally monotonous, backwoods drawl of frontman Ray Cookin' Sherry and the deft, turn-of-the-century musicianship of the multi-instrumentalists Paul Kaye and Tom V. Ray and the tuba-blowing Gary Elvis Schepers, Devil in a Woodpile aims to ensnare the listener with its rollicking mix of classic styles of American music. Although the group's stab may be less than perfectly placed, it still manages to hit the mark more often than not.
Housed on what is arguably the nation's premier insurgent country label--Chicago's Bloodshot Records--Devil in a Woodpile is immediately distinguishable from its cohorts by the manner in which it bends country to its particular brand of insurgence without the aid of the usual method of punk or rock filtration.
Country was, in the beginning, a hybrid of several older styles of music--certain forms of western European folk being dominant in its derivation--that has since evolved into a genre in its own right.
With Division Street, Devil in a Woodpile slightly alters the original formula by adding styles of music that are not commonly associated with country but originated in the United States at roughly the same time.
The primary ingredients in Devil in a Woodpile's soup of styles are ragtime, delta blues, bluegrass, jazz and, of course, country, although traces of others are certainly present.
Division Street further separates itself from the crowd through the use of any and every conceivable piece of instrumentation that band could get its hands on--who knew a plumbing pipe could sound so sweet?
In Division Street, Devil in a Woodpile has carefully created a celebratory document of American music as it existed prior to the advent of rock 'n' roll. The resulting album, although not perfect, is a fine piece of rustic, backwoods nostalgia--an Esperanto for the American music scene.
--Brian Gettler