My impression of the Dandelion Stompers is heavily influenced by a late fall experience at the family camp. We spent the day closing things up for winter with Grandma’s Sonny and Cher Show DVDs playing in the background, and often sucking us in with its pure entertainment. Hearing Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 2 a month later I was reminded of the musical period sketches frequent on the show, with Cher and the band often in a 1920s tavern or similar venue exuberantly belting out a humorously risque number in a way that shared her appreciation of the lyric with the audience and ready talent of the band.
The Dandelion Stompers album gave off a similarly theatrical vibe with production value worthy of TV, but minus the fuzzy boas. Their dynamic lead singer Katie Roche would have been a star on the St. Louis Riverboats of the 1960s revival period.
Like any good theatrical, vocal duties on the album don’t always lean on the star, three other band members contribute on various tracks, adding to the feel of a variety show if not a chronological progression or theme.
It isn’t just the gung ho singing, there is something about how the band plays behind it that sets it all off, that special rhythmic sense that adds a grin to the singer’s voice reaching to the back of the auditorium. I mean nothing but praise with terms like theatrical, this is a group that gives the audience an experience. While they dress in standard semi-formal attire and aren’t from any clips I’ve seen overtly physical in their performance, the sound itself has stage presence. Close your eyes and be transported.
Katie Roche plays accordion and several other instruments in an Americana band but sticks to lead vocals with the Stompers, and her voice is such an integral instrument she wouldn’t have time to double up anyway. She delivers every lyric, every melodic twist. You can follow her vocal line like a clever sax solo while really hearing the intent in the words. In a world full of impressive female leads, she is uniquely in control. Not everyone singing for a jazz band sings jazz — she does.
Baritone saxophonist Chris Clark leads the band and arranges the front line. He also provides strong vocals on a few numbers just as theatrical as Roche’s. Clark had a group focused on 1910s music at one point, so this 1920s band is a step forward in time. They are roughly speaking an octet, so arrangements are important. That size and the need for intentionality that comes with it contribute to the polished sound. Ten years with no lineup changes helps as well.
The title Whirlwind Sessions comes out of the unique circumstances of the double album’s creation. These tracks were recorded live during a tornado-threatened April Fool’s weekend at Flat Black Studios in Lone Tree, Iowa. They had only planned on enough material for one album but while trapped in inspiration struck and they kept going. They had more than enough material ready in their book to explore, one attendee of their live show described a three hour performance where the dancing never stopped. 
Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 1 features songs that lend themselves to their big joyful expressive sound; “Big Butter and Egg Man,” “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You,” “Comes Love,” “Root Hog or Die,” “When I Get Low I Get High,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Aggravatin’ Papa,” “Who Stole the Preacher’s Whiskey,” “Mama’s Gone Goodbye,” and “Shake That Thing.” The one track you probably won’t recognize is “Who Stole the Preacher’s Whiskey” which is by a well established local musician named Dave Moore, and likely to be familiar to some in their crowds. That one is delivered by Marc Janssen, Clark has his own vocal triumph on “Root, Hog, or Die.”
Lest you think Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 2 is just a few extras they might have left on the cutting room floor it is probably my favorite of the two just based on the titles: “Willie The Weeper,” “Blue Drag,” “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It,” “Lucy Long,” “Doin’ The New Lowdown,” “Red Hot Mama,” “I’m A Little Blackbird,” “Milenburg Joys,” and “Careless Love.” Everything gets a vocal, even “Milenberg Joys” and “Mama’s Gone Goodbye,” which most trad jazz bands give instrumental treatment these days.
I think “Lucy Long” and especially the less familiar “I’m A Little Blackbird” really exemplify what is unique about Katie Roche’s delivery and the ability of the band to set a scene. Looking up Blackbird I found the Florence Mills version with Clarence Williams, but also a version by Carol Leigh, a jazz revival singer that Roche had already reminded me of. The other singer that came to mind was St. Louis’ own Jean Kittrell. None of these singers sound like each other, indeed Roche’s voice is more traditionally “good” than Kittrell’s, but they are all jazz singers that put in that little extra that elevates a song, the band, the whole room with them into a moment in time.
The rest of the band consists of Tim Crumley on percussion, Katie Greenstein on trumpet, Brandi Janssen on bass, Marc Janssen on guitar, Suzanne Smith on clarinet, and Devin van Holsteijn on alto saxophone. Ira Greenstein was there from the formation of the band in 2014 on trombone and pocket trumpet. Decades older than the rest he provided guidance and a connection to an older sound. What I hear as a uniquely revival sound may have come from him. He was part of the Riverbank Blues Band and played Shakey’s Pizza in Sacramento, remaining involved in that scene for decades before relocating to Iowa shortly before the Dandelion Stompers formed. He passed on last year and doesn’t appear on Whirlwind Sessions but his daughter Katie plays a mean trumpet. I do not have space for bios of an octet, but unsurprisingly for a group this talented many have other musical projects in and out of jazz.
The Dandelion Stompers have an unusual amount of support from local swing clubs despite their 1920s New Orleans jazz focus. Three local swing clubs from two Iowa cities joined them for their album release party and I also found them trailed by dancers in a homecoming parade. They know how to network! I think social dancing may still have more popularity and even utility in the Midwest than elsewhere. I spotted some cowboy hats among their dancers.
Unfortunately I can’t see many coastal festivals investing in bringing a whole octet in from Iowa and I don’t think a smaller group or band of local subs could recreate the dynamism the Stompers have formed after a decade together. But I would love to be proven wrong. The Dandelion Stompers would be the surprise hit at any festival advertised in these pages. They have played nearby Bix Fest in Davenport, and at other Bix events held there throughout the year. I started plotting distances from Iowa City and quickly determined they should just hop on a raft down to New Orleans.
I imagine the Dandelion Stompers will be unfamiliar to nearly all of our readers besides regular Bix Fest attendees. Fortunately if you can’t make it to Iowa City, you can bring them to you with these two downloads from Bandcamp. Just close your eyes.
Whirlwind Sessions Vol. I & II
Dandelion Stompers
dandelionstompers.bandcamp.com
Joe Bebco is the Associate Editor of The Syncopated Times and Webmaster of SyncopatedTimes.com
