Rob Heron & the Teapad Orchestra – Soul of my City
Self Released – 1 February 2019
Wow, what a fun album! From the artwork to the music, this album is pure joy. This six piece from Newcastle Upon Tyne have been together for seven years, touring and recording, steadily building their fan base and honing their skills and sound. Singer and guitarist Rob Heron is a vinyl obsessive, constantly discovering new styles and flavours on obscure old 45s to add to their eclectic, retro sound.
This is not a band that relies on electronics or studio wizardry to make music. Instead, they use guitars, mandolin, harmonica, upright bass, accordion and drums, to create their own musical gumbo: a base of rockabilly, spiced up with flavours of jazz, blues, country, swing and even klezmer.
Rob Heron and the Teapad Orchestra fit into a tradition of bands like Urban Voodoo Machine, Dustbowl Revival and Roselit Bone who put a contemporary spin on time-honoured musical traditions. And just like those bands, they are far from a ‘revival’ group. Rob Heron and company have a healthy amount of respect for the classic music styles that influence them, but they’re not afraid to put their own twist on it. Most importantly, for all their infectious joy, this is a band that does not shy away from making poignant statements about the world we live in.
The best example of this is the title track, which addresses the all too current phenomenon of gentrification and economic cleansing. Apparently, even Newcastle Upon Tyne is not immune from this plague and the song talks about old buildings being torn down to make room for skyscrapers, and music venues and book stores being pushed out by newcomers who call themselves “bohemian” without a hint of irony. The music is jazzy and dramatic, like the soundtrack to a modern-day film noir set in an urban twilight zone, where high finance meets homegrown bohemia.
Then there’s the tune “There’s a Hole ( Where my Pocket Used to Be) “, a song that uses wry humour to talk about the plight of the working man. Musically, this is where Ennio Morricone meets Billy Bragg, with twangy guitar, melancholy harmonica, morose pedal steel, and a rousing sing-along chorus. The exuberance of this track makes the sobering lyrics all the more compelling, and perhaps this could be seen as the Rob Heron “formula”: eminently danceable tunes that draw heavily from rich musical traditions all the while drawing attention to the pressing issues of our modern world.
“Une Bouteille de Beaujolais” has the manouche flavour you’d expect, whereas “Holy Moly” sounds like vintage western swing, featuring some ace harmonica playing courtesy of Tea Pad Orchestra member Tom Cronin. “Fool Talkin’ Man” swaggers along like a hungover Tom Waits, a minor key ballad about a man whose mouth keeps getting him in trouble.
Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra just finished a UK tour, and I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this band is even more fun live than in the studio. So, if they ever happen to play in your neck of the woods, do yourself a favour and check out the zany retro mayhem of Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra, played with infectious abandon on actual instruments by actual people who can actually play them.
Order the new album here https://teapadorchestra.bigcartel.com/
https://teapadorchestra.co.uk/