The Northside Southpaws: Press

How is it possible not to love a CD of resophonic mandolin and guitar that instructs the record shop to file it under "Obsolete Ragtime and Sentimental Song"? When it comes to the brilliant Northside Southpaws, the answer is that it's simply impossible.

Consisting of two lefties, John Hasbrouck on resonator mandolin and Matt Gandurski on resonator guitar, the Southpaws hail from the fertile fields of Chicagoland, where blues, ragtime, jazz, swing and old-time country intermingle insatiably and musicians find influences from Old Town to Evanston to the South Side.

The result sounds a bit like Mike Compton and David Long doing their ruthlessly beautiful and authentic country blues duets, only featuring more urban roots sounds than Delta blues and deep hollow country (although the Southpaws have plenty of that in their bag of tricks, as well).

Mandolinist John Hasbrouck is a true master of the exotic resophonic style of mandolin. If you still harbor delusions that the mechanically amplified version of the acoustic mandolin can sound only hard-edged and ragged to the bone, listen here with fresh ears.

Hasbrouck's wonderful touch and deft technique often left me thinking he'd switched a more conventional mandolin in on some of the cuts. Nope, it's all done on a National Reso-Phonic Guitars Inc. eight-string mandolin, and I'm here to say it sounds just great on the material presented.

The same goes for guitarist Matt Gandurski, who is so tasteful and understated he always seems to play just the right chord, lick or rhythm chop that Hasbrouck's mandolin line was calling out for.

The material is an amazing mix of familiar tunes like "Blackberry Rag" to a wealth of classic ragtime-era material like "Tanner's Rag". No cut is longer than 3:25, so everything here glides by like a midnight freight highballing through the northern Illinois prairieland.

"Stomp Glide Wobble" is to my ears one of the best mandolin CDs of the year, filled with an unspoiled sound and infectious enthusiasm that will win over fans from bluegrass, jazz and swing, blues and other styles. Highly recommended.

The Northside Southpaws (are) a mandolin/guitar duo from Chicago. They play left-handed instruments and focus on ragtime and early American roots music. (...) "Stomp Glide Wobble" is their debut CD. It contains thirteen nice finger-picking pieces in the old string band tradition. Both musicians have a lot of experience on their instruments and that can be heard. Technically spoken a perfect CD, with easy going string music. Besides that I like the way they recorded the CD. I don’t know what equipment they used, but they managed to create a warm and authentic vintage sound. "Stomp Glide Wobble" is recommended to all string band and finger-picking fans worldwide.

Mandolinist John Hasbrouck and guitarist Matt Gandurski play left-handed versions of their resonator instruments, which were created in the 1920s by National and Dobro. These instruments get their unique tones through the use of metal cones to project the sound, in contrast to the traditional wooden soundboard. Hasbrouck and Gandurski play in the older styles -- bluegrass, ragtime, blues -- for which these instruments were designed. They wear their mastery of this American music with ease, and don’t dazzle the listener with pyrotechnic displays. Instead, they play "Jackson Stomp," "Blackberry Rag," and "Vicksburg Stomp" in the manner of the Mississippi Mud Steppers and the Three Stripped Gears, string bands of more than 70 years ago. The result is enjoyable and relaxed, and lets the music’s magic speak for itself. Only after a few listens do the subtle interplay and virtuosity of the musicians become apparent. The recording has an immediate, living-room intimacy, and there are no overdubs. The disc ends with a contemporary song, Tom Waits’ "Johnsburg, Illinois," played with delicacy and deep feeling -- an honest close to a moving, beautiful disc.