Monday, October 3, 2011

Milwaukee's Own Crooked Keys Play It Straight

Everything about Milwaukee's Crooked Keys is cool, modest and unconcerned with trite little things like current trends and pop culture fads.  Everything right on down to their simply packaged, single sleeve EP, entitled The Birds.  Bearing only the band's name and the album title on the front - and nothing more than the song titles on the back - it's a shrugging statement of the necessity of only the most basic essentials.  No website is listed for more info (though it's at crookedkeys.com), no personnel credits, not even a copyright date.

This sparseness, however, doesn't translate over to Crooked Keys' popularity and fanfare.  Ask anyone whose heard of them, and you're met with excited expressions and eager nods, people so enamored with the band they can barely contain their enthusiasm at the opportunity to talk about them, revel in them, and tell you just how significant they are.   

This was further illustrated when the group took the stage at Linneman's Riverwest Inn this past Friday evening.  An entire room of people hurried to the pews, intent on absorbing Crooked Keys' distinctive brand of ragtime gospel-folk rock, told in soaring church choir fashion by lead vocalist Leah Kowalewski.  She'll admit she isn't a church-going individual, but explains that since church was where she first began singing, it's a sensible start for her work with the band.

"Both my parents are pastors, and I've grown up in some very charismatic churches," she says, "I've always been drawn to gospel as an influence.  It's very soul stirring and empowering... and they can't tell you you suck if you're singing for Jesus."

Her songs lament in regret, in love, in damning those who've wronged her - all of the messages you'd expect to receive from the genre - but there's so much more class and excellence in the way Crooked Keys lay it out.
Maybe it's Kowalewski's call-to-arms delivery, her jilted tales of emotional unrest, and her way of shaming all those responsible with a wicked tongue in the sheep's clothing of one hell of a beautiful voice.  It's as though the things she tells of happened long ago, and though she's emotionally removed herself from her misfortunes, she's no less passionate about the events that caused them.  One could very easily compare her songwriting to the likes of Morrissey, or even my personal champion (whose lyrical skill and talent compares to very few), Paul Heaton.  When these writers pen their lyrics, it's less "woe is me" and more "shit happens, what can ya do?"

"A few years back, I was engaged," Kowalewski tells, "but my fiance broke it off, and suffice it to say, I did not deal with my feelings very constructively.  So I started to write about them from a new perspective.  It's way more fun to belt out a song with a danceable beat then to sing it all melodramatic coffee shop style."

The Birds EP is Crooked Keys debut effort, and though it's only a brief summary of the band's punchy, piano-folk style, its tracklist is so entertaining, invigorating and refreshing, it will easily hold fans at bay while the ensemble puts together a proper, and likely very much anticipated, full length.

Mind you, Kowalewski isn't the only thing worthwhile about Crooked Keys (though she's definitely the icing on the cake).  Her counterparts stir up the group's sound with just as much vigor.  Joe Hense is especially noteworthy for his immaculate and precise rhythm guitar work.  On the EP's title track, for example,  Hense's single string refrain holds up and follows through without variation - like he's weaving a line along the backbone of the song for the rest of them to hang onto.  Drummer Tim Reck (though since replaced by Cody Calderon) hammers the nails that keep it all in place while bassist Dan Mahoney, and Kowalewski's keys and voice, dance in the middle.  Kyle Short's lush, sort of Brian May style, electric guitar entries add just the right dimension and texture to color it all in perfectly.

Perhaps one of the most stand-out moments on the EP is Hense's Willie Nelson-esque lead vocal opportunity in the song "Wanderlust" (which better re-appear on any forthcoming full length, or I swear to God...).  Whether or not you're a fan of that kind of straight forward "old school country" is inconsequential, the song's integrity can't be ignored, and it's destined to become a crowd pleaser in the the Keys' repertoire.

In a world where just about every genre of music has been plumbed to the deepest possible depths. Where so many artists struggle and strive, and go to such lengths to establish their identity, their image and their product, it's ironic when you consider how effortlessly Crooked Keys pull it off.  It isn't so much that they're doing anything that hasn't been done before... it's that they're doing it right.

click the image to sample or buy Crooked Keys The Birds EP

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