AltRockBluesChickAmericanaSongs that you will love like your mother
The Alison Pipitone Band came together as one in 2005. Veteran rocker Alison Pipitone was already working with drummer Patrick Shaughnessy when they were joined by upright bassist Rebecca Mercurio, and then guitarist Graham Howes. 2005 was the Year of the Rooster - flamboyant and expressive, and promised to be a time of opportunity and sentimental fireworks. And so it was.
Since its inception, the band - which Pipitone refers to as “a blessing”- has toured extensively, adding scads of new fans to an already loyal base across the United States. They won the Top Original Rock Band and Top Original Female Vocalist awards at the 2005 Buffalo Music Awards. Around the same time, the band was offered a running gig at Buffalo’s legendary Sportmens Tavern, owned by producer and musician Dwane Hall. Hall liked what he heard and approached Pipitone about making an album together. The band jumped at the chance, and nine months later, Tigerbabies was born.
With the release of Tigerbabies, the APB delivers a magnificant blend of musical styles and moods - rock, blues, pop, alt, country – inspiring you to dream, to dance, and to take your air guitar out of the closet (well, maybe not that). Pipitone’s heart-tugging lyrics, laced with bits if irony, read like a book of poetry. You find yourself leaning a little closer to hear everything she has to say.
On the first track, “sunShinestar”, Pipitone speaks of “just a little hard luck” being “all you need to feel a little bit better bout your life.” Like a splash of cold water in the face you realize things maybe aren't all that bad. By the end of the song you feel as if you’re in the middle of a summer afternoon, serenaded by your favorite band in a room filled with strawberries, daisies and beer. Summer's day turns to night with “Sitting on Top of the World,” where you gaze at “plum trees” and “licorice rooftops.” The melody is light, loose and lazy – the feel, reminiscent of Van Morrison’s early offerings. You'll hit the rewind on this one again, and again, and maybe, probably again.
The band fluidly transitions to its signature style on songs like “You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down,” “Tiger” and “Good People, Dirty Lives.” With Will Holten’s molten sax and Graham Howes’ pumping lead lines, you find your feet do the talking, taking you up and back and forth, head bopping, arms swinging. On “Honey Do” Rebecca Mercurio handles the lead vocal atop a lovely, somewhat nostalgic melody. The song feels like a walk down a summer street, heat rising from the sidewalk, italian ice waiting for you at the next corner.
Ultimately, Tigerbabies is an electric escape, a rousing good time, a party you just don’t want to leave. It is bits of wisdom delivered from Pipitone with a wicked little grin from across the room.
-Margaret Shaughnessy, June 2006
