Brief review of our gig at Banjo Jim's in The Villager paper..


Here is a little review of East River's CD release party at Banjo Jim's on Satruday which was fun as hell..This is in the Scoopy's section of the paper The Villager..

From left, Eden Brower, Dom Flemons and John Heneghan playing at Banjo Jim’s.
Eden, John and Ray’s blues: We stopped in to see what was up at Ray’s Candy Store Saturday evening, and overheard that Eden & John’s East River String Band was playing over at Banjo Jim’s on Avenue C, and decided to wander over. It turned out it was the release party for their long-awaited new CD, “Drunken Barrel House Blues.” Those who enjoyed their first album of early rural blues won’t be disappointed by this offering. We really like “Yellow Bee,” as belted out by Eden Brower, who channels Bertha Lee, singing about being “buzzed” by her light-skinned lover — who turns out, of course, to be “Papa Johnny,” her boyfriend John Heneghan. “Raise a Ruckus Tonight” is also terrific: “Well, well, well!…” Oh yeah, Spidey — Shaun, the daredevil rickshaw man — was also in the audience. Check out Bob Arihood’s blog at Neither More Nor Lees to see how Brower literally “hung” with Spidey one night — dangling in the air off the bar of his rickshaw. After going down to Florida, Spidey’s back in town for about 10 days, he said. Anyway, it’s a great CD, with the cover illustration by R. Crumb, who is a huge early blues fan… . As for Ray, the Avenue A senior hot dog slinger said his latest headache is that his green card expired and he has to renew it. At this point, he said, he just hopes he can finally collect some Social Security in the next few years — by the time he turns 80. There’s gotta be a better way.