It’s a banjo thing. Every time I see a banjo, unless attached to the demented Dad Horse Experience of course, I feel that familiar dread that another trip up the well-trodden path to the identikit nirvana of Americana is on the cards. Cera Impala plays the banjo but no one is going to be accusing her of being identikit, least of all me.
With her band The New Prohibition, she walks something more akin to the Yellow Brick Road than Route 66 over the duration of the eleven songs on her album “Higher Place”. “Mother’s Side” starts off her album in conventional fashion but it takes less than a minute to figure out that this is a far from standard sortie into the rose tinted musical past. Ms Impala’s voice has a honeyed sweetness to it and it has the perfect foil, not in her admirable talents on the aforementioned banjo, but in Dirk Ronnenburg’s traditional yet fiery violin and that pairing makes this album both mature and endearing.
It is true to say that the songs on this album are possessed of universal strength with more than sufficient stylistic variations to maintain the attention of a civilised listener. “Gladioli”, for example, sets the stage for a touch of downhome redemption in such an effective manner that even Amanda Palmer would approve.
My ears are happy now that they have made the acquaintance of Cera Impala & The New Prohibition. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to ask a lady for a dance.