I love the Mills Brothers. Any time I see one of their LPs in a charity shop I do a little “shoop-de-whoop-whoop,” accompanied by a little jig of joy. As regular readers will know, I’m also a bit of a Francophile. So when I learned of the existence of The Timber Men Stompers—who do male close harmony singing in the irresistible accents of the UK’s more handsome, more romantic, more cultured, if slightly shorter (on average) neighbors—I was positively jubile.
And before anyone suggests that perhaps The Timber Men aren’t also Mills superfans—that perhaps they favor The Ink Spots, or perhaps The Four Freshmen—take a listen to their new record Jig Time, which is available on Bandcamp now. If you’ve ever heard a record by those four fabulous fraternal fellas, you’ll recognize their influence right away in the superb scatting and orally imitated instruments demonstrated on this delightful disc.
It’s not a long record, with twelve tracks (including the secret one) clocking in at just three minutes each, on average. But every one is a superbly produced, sweet-sounding, soothing symphony of géniale Gallic grooviness. (Okay—no more alliteration from now on.) So, is this a Mills Brothers tribute record? Mais, non. For, as well as wielding five fantastic voices and one guitar (Arno Gauchia), the Timber Men feature one trumpet (Arne Wernink), one clarinet (Pierre Bayse
