Jim Connolly & the Gove County Philharmonic - The Circus Doesn't Stop at Gove

What a lovely idea to put this down on tape! This is an issue all by itself, one of a kind, completely different from anything else on the pfMENTUM label, but then what isn’t, on this creative label? Seriously, this is something you might not expect from pfMENTUM, which hereby broadens the musical view of Jeff Kaiser’s venture even more, making it outstanding, already after just five or so releases.

So what is this? Hard to tell. A bunch of musicians getting together in the atmosphere of some olden themes, or in the feel of Midtown America gone-byes, good-byes, of the days of the Titanic and little girls in hats and long dresses swinging on the swings, with a small marching band advancing up Main Street for some cause or other, in the realm of local Mid-western politics? Could be.

This down-home guise moves something in me, towards… sentimentality? I don’t know, it raises some lost and forgotten feelings deep inside, anyway.

Part of this CD was recorded in Jim Connolly’s living room, direct to DAT, but the seemingly haphazard circumstances shouldn’t fool anyone. The little details and the perfection of the near-misses and the instrumental balancing acts tell you that these are skilled musicians, proceeding in a well thought-out manner through the living room of hometown U.S.A. with a warm sense of history and companionship, somewhat in the same spiritual manner as the Band’s performances of their Civil War songs, like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.

However, it’s a style Jim Connolly applies here. He has written and arranged the whole set, so it’s new music paying homage to some of the finest feelings of older days, bringing them up fresh and shining in full view of the citizens.

Yeah, it’s a pleasant and thoughtful gathering of citizens in the town square, maybe for some good cause, possibly to collect funds for war veterans or for some local reason. There’s a down home feeling of respect and neighborliness in this music.

Of course you can hear that this is also modern music, at times, when the band gets intentionally a little bit out of tune, just to stir things up a bit, or when they insert some modern day tricks that would have been impossible back then… Yeah man! I’ll have another cup of coffee and enjoy this CD all over again, not for reviewing, but for enjoying - immensely!