Tarantella (band)
Tarantella is a music group from Denver , Colorado that was founded around 2000 by singer Kal Cahoone and multi-instrumentalist John Rumley.
history
Both founding members grew up in Denver and enjoyed a classical music education . Cahoone, the first piano lessons , had moved to their study of the Spanish language to South America and spent several years in Chile and Argentina , where they together with the composer Christian Basso had their first shots. Back in Denver she founded the band Tarantella together with the guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Rumley. Rumley runs a full-time guitar workshop and has worked as a musician with the bands The Hush and Slim Cessna's Auto Club . The band name Tarantella is derived from the dance of the same name , which emerged in the Italian Renaissance and is mainly performed in Sicily as a healing ritual against the effects of spider bites. Some of the band's songs are also musically in this tradition.
style
Her first album Esquéletos was released in 2005 on Alternative Tentacles , the label of the former Dead Kennedys front man Jello Biafra . Cahoone took on most of the vocal parts and played the accordion , Rumley provided backing vocals and played guitar , banjo and keyboard . Daniel Jon Grandbois ( bass , backing vocals), Chad E. Johnson ( drums ), Bob Ferbrache (guitar, keyboard), Kelly O'Dea ( violin ) and Ordy Garrison (second drums) were also involved in the recordings, all of them already had a name in the local music scene.
Tarantella combine influences of country music with European and Latin American folklore and are therefore also associated with the genre term “ Tex-Mex ”. Character defining are banjo and accordion , instruments such as the mouth harp remember the soundtrack to spaghetti westerns , appreciate the Cahoone and Rumly. On the album ballads alternate with danceable pieces, the rhythms of which are partly based on polka and sirtaki . The lyrics sung in English and Spanish mostly deal with motifs from popular love poetry , the songs have a tragic, but also a black humor character. In terms of singing, comparisons have been made to PJ Harvey and Siouxsie Sioux .
further activities
The band is part of a scene-like network of groups from the greater Denver area who support each other with their recordings and performances. For example, members of Tarantella have worked on Sixteen Horsepower , Woven Hand , The Denver Gentlemen, Jay Munly and Lilium. Cahoone is planning her first solo album for the end of 2009.
Quotes
- "If David Lynch ever films a Western, the soundtrack is right here." - SepiaChord
- "Tarantella's exceptional debut, Esquéletos ... an intoxicating blend of ancient European folk ballads and accordion-driven spaghetti-Western cabaret." - Westword