Holmes Brothers, Club Helsinki, March 3
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., March 4, 2001) - The Holmes Brothers stretched out on Saturday night at Club Helsinki, in a program that probably wasn’t meant to be but could well have been seen in its entirety as the trio’s response to the growing popularity of club-based jam-rock.

Jam-bands of the sort that frequently play at Club Helsinki and elsewhere rely heavily on the sort of roots-based music for which the Holmes Brothers are known as their source material. In the hands of journeymen jammers, the blues, soul and funk music are often the foundation for extended improvisations, which often strip the music of its taut authenticity and reinvent it as exploratory groove music.

What the Holmes Brothers did in the first half of their show on Saturday night was in a sense to show these young whippersnappers, who are more often than not white, conservatory- or university-trained musicians, that you can jam on the soul-blues without turning it into the sort of self-indulgent mush that often passes for “jazz” these days.

In the hands of the Holmes Brothers, the blues, funk and soul music are strong enough to be explored and extended in organic improvisations that adhere to the music’s core structures and feelings while allowing plenty of room for the musicians to express their individuality and showcase their virtuosity.

The Holmes Brothers were a tightly wound and well-rounded trio on Saturday night. Lead vocals were shared among guitarist Wendell Holmes, bassist Sherman Holmes and drummer Popsy Dixon. Whoever wasn’t singing lead gamely filled in on harmonies. With such a stripped-down, minimalist lineup, Sherman Holmes used his thundering electric bass guitar as a lead instrument, establishing the melodic and harmonic basis of the songs, leaving the rhythm chores to Dixon, while Wendell Holmes was free to use his instrument to paint vivid colors and textures with his palette of single notes and jazz chords.

The group’s first set alternated slow blues, soul ballads, upbeat rockers (including a medley of Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’” and Mitch Ryder’s “Jenny Take a Ride”), gospel and even a set-closing country-shuffle instrumental, a nod the Holmes’s Virginia roots that was more Johnny Cash than Buddy Guy. Perhaps only the Neville Brothers of New Orleans can match the Holmes’s organic versatility and panoply of tonal and stylistic colors.

The jamming wasn’t only happening on stage. The crowd was jam-packed, and dancers jammed themselves onto the small dance floor in front of the stage, adding to the festive, party-like atmosphere that was at the heart of what the Holmes Brothers set out to accomplish.

[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 7, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]