Formed in early 2012, The Demagogues is an alternative folk band, featuring the broad musical tastes of three seasoned musicians. Featuring Andy Reed on Octave Mandolin, Lizi Bennett on violin and Benjamin Akira Tallamy on guitar and vocals, their dark ballads and fairytales are bleak, beautiful and shrouded in bittersweet menace.
The Demagogues have a single titled “Cocaine Blues”. The song is a retelling of the traditional blues standard “Little Sadie” which is an American bad-man ballad from the late 19th or early 20th century. It is related to other, similar songs “Bad Lee Brown” and “Cocaine Blues,” the latter of which was recorded by Johnny Cash.
Andy Reed – Benjamin Akira Tallamy – Lizi Bennett
The earliest written record of “Little Sadie” dates to 1922 and the first audio recording was made by North Carolina old-time musician Clarence “Tom” Ashley in 1930. The murder in the story took place in North Carolina, with the sheriff from Thomasville apprehending the killer in Jericho, which is possibly somewhere near Charleston, SC.
Benjamin Akira Tallamy is a super talented songwriter and player, and this reworking of “Cocaine Blues” together with Andy Reed and Lizi Bennett stands out in that it has a live acoustic, down home feel. I recommend turning it up loudly on a quality home audio system capable of perfectly reproducing the octave mandolin and the violin in this recording. It sounds awesome!
Benjamin is an amazing musician who creates beautiful sounds. His music is usually complex yet simple and inspiring, and he has a unique way of telling a story within his music. This is the first time I have heard him with The Demagogues project and I must say they are equally impressive.
The Demagogues take “Cocaine Blues” and practically turn it inside out. The original Americana soul within the song is enhanced with an infusion of Baroque musical colors adding even more depth and dramatics to this traditional piece. This is the kind of quality arrangement and delivery you’d expect from a session recording with Nick Cave and Tom Waits.
This music is rich and stirring while the tone is contemplative, beautiful and melodic in the best of ways. To categorize the music of The Demagogues is not an easy task: it embraces alternative singer-songwriter quality, neo-folk simplicity and the boldness of using ‘unconventional’ acoustic stringed instruments within a modern mainstream context.
It’s such a pleasure listening to music that unfolds bar after bar, and to a set of artists gracefully inventing their own idiom. The Demagogues version of “Cocaine Blues” has an unassuming beauty that makes most pop music seem clichéd and overbearing.
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