ALBUM REVIEW: At 84, Jim Kweskin Is Still ‘Doing Things Right’
Nick Cristiano
Posted On April 23, 2025
Jim Kweskin plays old stuff. And it never gets old.
Since the singer and guitarist came to prominence with his jug band during the folk boom of the early ‘60s, he has essentially been doing the same thing — mining vintage material, especially early jazz and blues, and filtering it through his string-band sensibility. The result is music with a relentlessly infectious spirit and swing that defies time.
At 84, Kweskin shows no signs of slowing down. For Doing Things Right, he leads a large ensemble billed as the Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue. He has collaborated often with many of the members, including his co-producer, bassist Matthew Berlin; steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar; singer and trumpet player Annie Linders; and singer Samoa Wilson (his niece).
As usual in a Kweskin project, the players get plenty of room to shine, but only in the service of the songs’ headlong momentum. Chronologically, the 14-song set ranges from the 1921 standard “Right or Wrong,” with Kweskin and Wilson duetting over a Western swing arrangement, to 1954’s “Mardi Gras Mambo,” with blues singer Racky Thomas delivering the robust vocals.
In between is a similarly delicious variety of material. “When I Get Too Old to Dream,” from 1934, starts as a waltz before revving into a second-line strut, with Kweskin and Wilson sharing the lead vocals. Irving Berlin’s aching “What’ll I Do”, from 1923, showcases Wilson’s torch-singer talents. Linders, who provides rousing trumpet throughout, also displays her vocal strengths, belting out 1929’s “Ducks Yas Yas.” Rounding out the singers, fiddler Matt Leavenworth launches the set by sharing the lead with Kweskin on the Western swing of 1927’s “Four or Five Times,” punctuated by Bob Wills-style interjections.
Kweskin takes the solo vocal spotlight on the 1949 pop standard “Mona Lisa,” given a jazzy treatment with solos for fiddle, steel, trumpet, and piano, and Moon Mullican’s 1950 roadhouse romp “Sail My Ship Alone.”
On Sidney Bechet’s “Viper Mad,” from 1929, Kweskin sings, “I’m 21, far from done / I’ve just begun.” When he and his mates are performing music as bursting with joy and vitality as this, it’s almost believable.
The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue With Jim Kweskin’s Doing Things Right is due out April 25, 2025 via Jalopy Records.
