Artist Asylum Street Spankers

Todd Williams

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Asylum Street Spankers

These days, it's always a new conceptual gimmick for the Asylum Street Spankers, but it's smart to pick a strong theme when your act's an unwieldy hybrid of old-timey string band and spring-heeled variety-show comedy. The Spankers' last tour, behind the 2008 album, What? And Give Up Show Biz?, affectionately satirized the life of a touring band, but this time they're out behind a 2009 album called God's Favorite Band. A mix of original and traditional material, the album is as musically accomplished as it is cheeky: It begins with an acoustic instrumental tribute to bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, then plunges headlong into gypsy jazz, folk spirituals, and even a Gershwin tune, with fiddles, washboard, and mandolin ablaze.

Updated 12/21/2009