Ticklepenny Corner: From The Porch

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May 29, 2001

This is dangerous album to buy. When you listen to it, you may find yourself inching out of traffic and driving into the country, replacing your 9-to-5 redundancy with midnight revelry. On From The Porch, Ticklepenny Corner has crafted a gem of an album, the perfect accompaniment piece to a family reunion, a reflective stroll under the moonlight, or a late night glass of wine on...well, the porch, of course.

“I just need a porch to sing and to swing, and to know all will be OK,” Noah Riemer sings on “Porch Song.” Like many songs on the album, this verges on becoming a spiritual. You can almost picture your family singing these tunes around a campfire...if your family happens to be full of wildly talented twenty-somethings. As songwriter, Riemer restores artistic dignity to an age group plundered by boy bands and angry-about-nothing meatheads.

But he doesn’t do it alone. The backbone of the songs, especially the more involved instrumentation, is provided by bassist Aaron Zorn and percussionist Bill Stangel. And some of the album’s best moments come when the lead vocals are handed off to Beth Spransy. Noah and Beth, who moonlight as brother and sister, make up one of the best vocal pairings since Dre & Snoop. His voice is strong and earthy, hers is soft and angelic.

The tandem allows Ticklepenny Corner to move in many directions. “Up” is a buoyant, feel-good number; the song probably best equipped to stand alone as a single, with its happy violin, peppy guitar and sing-along chorus. The instrumentation takes a backseat on “Numbers,” which allows Spransy’s beautiful voice to shine.

The most overtly spiritual tracks (“I Shall Never Doubt” and “(Reprise)”) may raise red flags to some listeners, but even the religion is handled softly, allowing you to notice it if you want to or just enjoy the music otherwise.

You listen to this album and you not only want to see Ticklepenny Corner in concert, but you want them to come play for you in your living room and be your new friends.

From The Porch is produced by Ric Hordinski (Over the Rhine). It is available for purchase from PasteMusic (http://www.pastemusic.com). You can also listen to selected tracks.

You can also hear selected tracks, read biographies and journals from the band at http://www.ticklepennycorner.com

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