The Two Man Gentlemen Band: The Old Tyme Hook...

There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of bands out there trying to make a go of the music biz. Figuring out how to differentiate yourself and separate your music from the mass of stuffs out there is probably as daunting a task as actually creating the product. Some folks opt for combining two desperate genres and pretending that the result is some futuristic impulse prefiguring the next step in humanity and how music is heard and made. Usually that’s bunk – and it’s pretty clear too. But every once in a while a group shows up that is immediately unique (in a new music cohort at least) – The Two Man Gentlemen Band is that combo.

Andy Bean and Fuller Condon, banjoist and basser respectively, have reached back in time and hand plucked show tunes, vaudeville showmanship and good old tyme vibes in order to arrive at their musical stew. It’s obviously not a new creation – but again, amidst the current crop of acts attempting to make a go of music, it seems as if these fellows are headed down a path that no one else is on right now, or at least no one that’s hit the radar of the media.

Drip Dryin' with the Two Man Gentlemen Band is the ensemble’s fourth full length since 2005 – yeah they’ve been busy. But even if they weren’t ensconced in the studio for a good deal of the last four years, the group’s still been able to share the stage with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan – on the same day. That probably wasn’t the stated goal of the Two Man Gentlemen Band when this all began, but that show was as good a reward as these guys might see. It’s not that there isn’t a market for this kind of entertainment, there is. It’s just that the income afforded these folks might not be fit for sustaining a body in this day and age. Again, though, it seems like the Two Man Gentlemen Band just wants to crank out some acoustic music.

And over the ten tracks offered up on Drip Dryin’ with… it sounds as if the duo accomplishes what it’s set out to do. The music is certainly of a time past, but some of the lyrical content is tongue and cheek enough to make even youngsters crack a smile. “Into My Minivan,” while being clearly of the now, still is able to take a look back at older song craft in which singers simply wooooo a woman. It remains to be seen if asking a girl to get into one’s minivan might work, but Bean and Condon wanna give it a try.

It’s all fun and games though. The playing here at times comes off as a few steps above amateurish – but no one flubs a note or misses a cue. The tunes just sound a bit slight with just the bass and banjo only occasionally augmented by a few other instruments. But if you go and find a bottle of whiskey, it’ll all sound like gold.