New Jersey artist collective Committee of Vultures continue the roll-out of their authentic Blues/Roots album "Everybody Wants the Blues" with new single/video "Lightning Struck the Fairgrounds".
Committee Of Vultures is a collection of world class musicians centered in New Jersey and assembled to record new original material that captures the distinctive musical soul of the region. This powerful collective utilizes an eclectic mix of genres that spans the full spectrum of roots music ranging from rock and roll, blues, soul and swamp boogie to Americana, alt-country and gospel. C.O.V has been recording continuously since 2012 and amassed a deep vault of recordings featuring 30 plus musicians and vocalists who give the band an ever changing sound from one session to the next. Loosely configured but bound by a common musical thread, the brothers and sisters of C.O.V are dedicated to their shared musical promise to “Serve the Music” and to honor the mystical traditions of “The Jersey Delta.”
Significant contributors include: Benny Harrison (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Robert Van Kull (songwriter, vocals, guitar, harmonica), Rob Paparozzi (harmonica, vocals), Ada Dyer (vocals), Kevin Hadley (guitar), Dave Halpern (drums), Jack Daley (bass), P.K. Layvengood) (guitar), Al Chez (horns), Jimmy Ryan (pedal steel), Kenny Aaronson (bass), Tim Carbone (fiddle), Steve DeAcutis (guitar), Glen Burtnik (bass, vocals), Patti Maloney (vocals), Robert Mills (guitar, vocals), Lisa Lowell (vocals), Sheryl Marshall (vocals), Joe Bellia (drums), Charlie Torres (bass), Brandon Morrison (bass), and Lee Falco (drums).
Like the best roots music, "Everybody Wants the Blues" is rich with tradition and heavy with deeply human themes, yet remains a rollicking good time throughout. With enough whiskey-soaked, raw storytelling edge to please Tom Waits enthusiasts, this album is full of fiery, authentic tales for the underdog.
Committee Of Vultures is a collective effort by an ever-changing lineup of musicians, primarily from New Jersey, assembled to record and promote the music and traditions of “The Jersey Delta.” All songs are written by hardcore Jersey Delta native and saw mill worker Robert Van Kull, noted for his transient existence and aversion to cameras and interviews. Van Kull is partnered with musical legend Benny Harrison, a well known staple in the NY/NJ music scene as a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. This duo draws from a deep well of the best musicians the area has to offer, to create an ongoing series of studio recordings that remain largely unreleased to date. This powerful collective utilizes an eclectic mix of musical genres, striking original material and tightly wound performances by a brotherhood of impeccable performers.
Jersey Delta Records is an independently owned and operated record label based in New Jersey’s historic/mythical Delta Region. Management and staff are direct descendants of the area’s unique local population whose musical and cultural roots can be traced well beyond the commencement of official record keeping which was not formally established in many parts of this disenfranchised region until the late 1930’s.
The legendary history of the Jersey Delta remains a mixture of fact, fiction, myth, comedic embellishment and self-serving fabrication. Greatly undocumented and subject to wildly disparate accounts and descriptions, it is said that the region remained unrecognized by the state’s governmental authorities well into the 20th century through a policy of beneign neglect. “The Delta” has sometimes been referred to as the “Deadwood” of the East. Legend has it that as late as the 1950’s the famously independent inhabitants of this isolated fiefdom remained exempt from any formal regulations as to alcohol, firearms, tobacco, mandatory education, speed limits, and public displays of affection. The local clans and chieftains did, however, enforce strict prohibitions against accounting, the wearing of neckties, and school prayer.
Consigned to relative isolation by its Northern Highlands, rugged Eastern coast, Western Salamander bogs, and Southern “Sinkhole District”, cultural intolerance, racial prejudice and many forms of modern technology remained virtually unknown as the rest of the American continent grappled with segregation, religious intolerance, woman’s suffrage, hate crimes and terrorism. The Delta’s rich history of passing songs from one generation to another and its embrace of the bandana as an everyday headdress for men are widely acknowledged to be many standard deviations beyond the national average. With urbanization came a transformation to the use of more modern instruments and arrangements although many of the earliest known recordings feature traditional folk instruments including the nose whistle, the handsome dougie, and the bloody magoo.
During the “Great Migration” in the early part of the 20th century thousands of residents from the Delta’s southernmost reaches left their homes and settled in the region’s northern urban centers. This confluence of musical traditions resulted in the creation of a more modern and eclectic musical hybrid which produced legendary performers whose careers and accomplishments are documented at jerseydeltarecords.com.
To this day boats still cross the channel, old women tie tomato plants to wooden stakes with strips of cloth torn from old bed sheets, and music in the Delta, old or new, is good if it is good in the end. And lo, the peoples were one, and they had all one language, and that language was not confounded so that they might understand one another's speech, and they twined with their mingles, and in music, found their happiest homes.
