Les Claypool’s Duo De Twang Releases “Four Foot Shack”
So what do you call a group with one bass, one guitar, and a beat provided by a tambourine-type thing?
You’d call it Les Claypool’s Duo de Twang, composed of Primus leader/bass monster Claypool and guitarist Bryan Kehoe. It’s a departure from Primus’ freewheeling, iconoclastic funk — kind of. Duo de Twang’s first album Four Foot Shack, is, as you would imagine from the band name and album title, a rootsy kind of thing.
But it’s rootsy by way of covers of Primus songs like “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.” Other covers include a twangy take on The Bee Gee’s disco anthem “Stayin’ Alive,” Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses,” and Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans.”
Claypool told the Broward/Palm Beach New Times that Duo de Twang emerged from his involvement with a San Francisco music festival. “We always talked about doing a little, acoustic solo thing, because I’m always twanging away with my resonator bass singing hillbilly songs.”
And the way he and Kehoe twang is really the sound of two guys having fun. As he described it to the newspaper — like “two guys hanging around a campfire, cracking jokes.”
If you want to get a taste of that feel in person, the Duo de Twang tour has added four dates: an additional night — Feb. 26 — at The Heath in New York City; March 9 at Plush in St. Louis; March 11 at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, Ark.; and March 15 at Howlin Wolf in New Orleans. Check the list of dates here.
You’ll also hear that relaxed vibe when you check out Duo de Twang’s take on “Battle of New Orleans”:
Four Foot Shack is out now on CD, vinyl and digital formats (iTunes and Amazon MP3).
Four Foot Shack Track List:
- Four Foot Shack
- Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver
- Amos Moses
- Red State Girl
- Nineteen Scarlet Roses
- Boonville Stomp
- Stayin’ Alive
- Rumble of the Diesel
- Pipe Line
- Buzzards of Greenhill
- Hendershot
- Man in the Box
- D’s Diner
- Battle of New Orleans
- Jerry Was a Race Car Driver