In the two years since I posted my rave review of the Joe Marcinek Band’s album 5, - naturally, their 5th album since their 2011 debut Both Sides – the funky-fiery rock-jazz-blues-soul fusion collective under Marcinek’s explosive guitarisma and leadership has been wildly prolific. While doing Lord knows how many hundreds of live gigs with a constantly changing lineup, they’ve released Solo Guitar, Dead Funk Summit (a gathering of passionate Deadhead musicians) and the single “Hyperbole.”
While their latest album 1 River Street doesn’t have clever dog related themes like 5 and isn’t centered around a Jerry Garcia aesthetic), it is a tribute of sorts to Iron Wax Studios in Erving, MA, located (of course!) at 1 River Street, where the album was recorded. Marcinek and his all new cast of magnificent, musically supple characters – driven by bassist Nate Edgar, keyboardist Kris Yunker and drummer/producer Alan Evans – pay the most direct homage to the room on the barn-burning, organ and crackling guitar fired closing jam “In Memory of Iron Wax,” literally the last track ever recorded there.
For those new to the band’s aesthetic, the twin flames of Marcinek’s burning solo and Yunker’s organ on that tune is a good primer on how intensely this unit rolls. JMB is all cool and funkified aces everywhere else as well, from the spirited, bouncy, strut of the perfectly titled opener SoulD (a showcase for Yunker’s B-3 and the horn section sizzle of trombonist Brian Thomas, trumpeter Alex Lee Clark saxophonist Jared Sims) and the lilting reggae-funk romp “Carma” through the trippy, harmonic bluesy-smoothness of the quirkily titled “Hawaiian Dinosaur,” which features Sim’s dreamy, soaring flute and Clark’s extended dynamic trumpet improv. 1 River Street’s other gems include the boisterous, fuzz guitar poppin’ “85’d” (does that mean near death, which would be 86?) and personal favorite “Ola Ola,” a hypnotic, high octane and brassy shuffle that sounds like what might happen if Tower of Power found themselves stranded on a desert island with tropical winds and burning sand.
The mid-tempo, sweetly romantic (but still a bit edgy and crunchy) “Look At You” offers a bit of a sonic oasis from all the big production and blazing elsewhere. The Joe Marcinek Band may never record at 1 River Street again but fans are assured that the guitarist will ground his creativity elsewhere, with other insanely amazing musicians, in the future.
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