IS IT NOW? - The Doughboys (RAM Records)
Holy reunion, Batman, is it 1968 again? That was the year when New Joisey-raised The Doughboys were house band at Cafe Wha? on Macdougal Street in Greenwhich Village, a place that was more or less Career Ground Zero to Hendrix, the Velvets and Robert Allen Zimmerman. Forty years later and they go and put out their debut album full of mid-'60s Stonesy goodness . Pass that hearing aid...So who the hell are The Doughboys? Possibly the quintessential outgrowth of the typical American high school band. A merger of two rival acts and winners of a teen TV battle of the bands, they scored some regional hits and tour with people like Tommy James and the Beach Boys. But by the time the '70s dawned, The Doughboys were the No Boys and had gone their separate ways.
Members went on to greater things with singer Myke Scavone frontman for Ram Jam (of "Black Betty" fame) and drummer Richie Heyman getting the best view in the house as sideman for Brian Wilson and Link Wray.
The story gets better. Fast forward to 2000 and The Doughboys only re-convened at the suggestion of drummer Heyman's wife Nancy. Obviously a child bride who missed them the first time around, she wanted to see her old man's band for herself, so did what any independent-minded significant other would have and organised a show. Must have been a good 'un because eight years later, three-quarters of the the band's still going, original guitarist Willy Kirchofer having left the building a few years ago.
It took the band seven years to get this out but it sounds like it was worth the wait. This is uncomplicated, rock and roll, laid down in the spirit of the many Brit Invasion and blues-influenced combos that populated clubs and parties all over the USA. The Doughboys evoke the Kinks, the Yardbirds (very much so) and the Stones in the way that only bands that lived and breathed their essence could.
Original fan and new guitarist Gar Francis has brought a stack of his own songs to the party and there are venerable or obscure covers ("Route 66", "That's How My Love Is", "I'm Cryin' ", "Down Home Girl" and "Ain't Gonna Eat My Heart Anymore") that sit hand-in-glove with the fuzzy-edged tub-thumper "Out Of The Night" and the ace "Everything That's Close to Me". (That last one's outro'd with a coda from a 1966 single by pre-Doughboys band The Ascots.
Production is clean but punchy with legendary Ed Stasium the man behind the mastering.
I'm hearing a band that could be the less bawdy uncles to The Raunch Hands. The elders might behave a little better but there's nothing on this disc suggesting any of them are about to apply for the old age pension. Or be the GOP's candidate for the Presidency, thankfully.
A surprise packet with character you can't buy, this will delight fans of the bands that these Doughboys obviously took to heart. Grab a copy via here.
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