The Barrelhouse Wailers are a hot jazz and blues outfit from Ventura, California. They’ve played together since 2013 and Never Look Back is their third album. I thoroughly enjoyed Day In, Day Out, their 2019 release and was excited that it was mostly original material. The new album does it again, including eleven band originals and three standards—a heaping portion! The lyrics are bluesy and well-crafted; and are likely to become fan favorites, or be enjoyed at home more with each listen. They sometimes celebrate debauchery but the words have depth, the playing is tight, and the arrangements are well-orchestrated. It may be the nature of the subject matter, but I feel more of a dark country vibe to some tracks on this this album. Barrelhouse music.
The band is Karen Parkhouse , vocals; Diamono Andreo, drums/washboard; David Leoncavallo, bass; Jim Wade, tuba; Drue Chermak, trumpet; Stan Middleton, trombone; John C. Webb, clarinet/ sax/ flute; and Todd Temanson, banjo. While they all have other things going on in their careers the band seems to know they have a special thing together; almost all the players are the same as appeared on their 2015 debut. That album didn’t include the originals that I now associate with the band, and isn’t available on Bandcamp. I am glad they took the daring turn toward writing their own material. Five members are credited on various titles, so
