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Tracking The Odds: Eugene Chadbourne (Audio)

Oct 19, 2017
Produced by Roulette Intermedium.

The guitarist and free styling provocateur Eugene Chadbourne with his renegade rockabilly noise band recorded at Roulette on December 10, 1994. Featuring Chadbourne on banjo, guitar, voice; Barry Mitterhof, mandolin; Bob Jordan, home made instruments; and Charles Rosina, electronic effects. Portions of this concert were released on Leo Records in 1999 as Worms With Strings.

Chadbourne’s early musical influences were Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey. During the early 1970s, he lived in Canada to avoid military service in the Vietnam War and later moved to New York City where he got involved in free improvisation with Henry Kaiser and John Zorn and launched an unconventional rockabilly band named Shockabilly with Mark Kramer and David Licht. Chadbourne explored other genres, playing with a Cajun band and a Russian folk band; mixed country, Western, and improvisation in the band LSD C&W; and was in a duet with Jimmy Carl Black, who played drums for Frank Zappa. He has also worked with Han Bennink, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Charles Tyler.