The company one keeps says a lot about a musician. Jabe has got a friend who plugged a banjo into a Marshall stack and another who is a fiddle player that joined the circus. I hooked up with Jabe at about 9:30 on a Wednesday night in Allston Rock City. I don't see why you can't rock with a banjo. It sounds bad ass. We're loud as fuck. As the bar we were in was threatening Karaoke, we skedaddled to my apartment where I asked him if he wanted a beer or something. Got any booze? I poured him about five shots worth of Jack and gave him the last ice cube in the tray. He made no comment and left no moisture in the glass. Jabe dug on the fact that I had been listening to the first Izzy Stradlin and the Juju Hounds disc and we agreed Sabbath is the shit. Gillian Welsh, Reverse, Black Crowes, Old 97s (especially Too Far to Care), Tom Waits, Wilco, The Benders (who he is a member of), Dennis Brennan, and Sixteen Horsepower were also mentioned.

Jabe is up in Northampton, NH these days after spending eight years in Somerville and is solo again after living with a girl for a while. You can't just avoid each other for three days . Jabe plays guitars, organ, melodica, and accordion plus blows harp and fools around on drums. He also is a mean songwriter. (My faves: Damn Them Big Brown Eyes and Jerk.) He missed every Thursday and Friday of school while growing up to travel to craft shows in a camper, and characterizes W as a rich cowboy not smart enough to digest the consequences of what we're doing to the world.

Drama City features Dave Westner on drums, Jay Aucella on bass, and Sean Staples on mandolin, banjo, and fiddle. It came out well. It's a good snapshot that was recorded in eight days. After 9/11, some gigs got cancelled so we took advantage of the time. Everything's live with two vocal takes. No punching in except for a few mandolin parts and some B3 added later. I did the folk scene for a long time. I like organic, acoustic songwriter based stuff pumped up to rock. I'm resting from roots rock now. I'm doing an atmospheric, ethereal thing with analog synths. I go in at ten, write a song, record it all day and try not to sound like me.

Catch Jabe sounding like himself at the record release party at Lizard Lounge on April 4 th and 5 th and pick up Drama City with a bonus CD-Rom disc containing three vids and three MP3s. For more info, go to Jabe.net, pigpilemusic.com, and folkweb.com       -Eric Holland