Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Winners of Canada's 2003 Juno Award for their Chicken Scratch CD (Roots/Traditional Group Album of the Year) and edging toward even greater prominence thanks to their appearance on Kelly Joe Phelps' Slingshot Professionals, slide guitarist Steve Dawson and violinist/mandolinist Jesse Zubot team with acoustic bassist Andrew Downing (doubling on pump organ) and trumpeter Kevin Turcotte as the Great Uncles of the Revolution. They inform their nine original compositions with the jaunty spirit of Raymond Scott/Carl Stalling cartoon music, the lively swing of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, and the melodic wistfulness of early jazz pioneer Bix Beiderbecke. The unusual instrumental blend takes an even more eccentric turn when the quartet interprets Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, slipping the novelty noose by way of their beguiling interactions, subtle mood manipulations, and full exploitation of their instruments' smearing slide, snappy staccato, and bristling pizzicato potential.