Description
The Nee Ningy Band has been creating its own distinct brand of traditional music since the 1970s–and Pettigrew Blues proves they’re still having fun. With a sound perfected in marketplaces, tube stops and street festivals, the Nee Ningy Band is known for its unique, high-energy performances designed to grab your attention–and hold it. The current incarnation of the group features Chris Turner, Rachel Maloney, Ted Porter and David DiGiuseppe, specializing in harmonica, fiddle, mandolin and accordion respectively.
The Nee Ningy’s last release on the Music Maker label, The Parlor Sessions, featured a fantastic array of instrumental tunes; Pettigrew Blues, on the other hand, highlights several of the band’s as-yet-unrecorded vocal numbers. Like their previous endeavors with Music Maker, this project seeks to capture the special synergy that defines the band’s sound. “The energy that gets created when we start playing with each other, it just sends us, it’s a fusion” says David DiGiuseppe; Ted Porter concurs, “There’s such a symbiosis between the players; all we need to do is be able to hear and see each other and we can knock it off–it’s just great, it’s really magical.”
Pettigrew Blues draws influence from a wide range of traditional music styles–it’s got blues, its got gospel, its even got Hank Williams–but in the hands of the band, it’s all Nee Ningy music. Their unique musical texture and the sheer enthusiasm in these performances renders these disparate traditions as a cohesive whole. Indeed, it is that infectious glee makes this record–and the Nee Ningy band as a whole–so enjoyable to listen to; they live and die by the refrain on track 2, “Salty Boogie:” “If you don’t have fun, its your own damn fault.”
