Perfect Strangers

Performing outside the Reddstone Tavern during a sunny Labor Day weekend, the Magpies reflect the end of summer. Tossing piano, slide guitar, cymbals, accordion, bass and choral harmonies into a street barbeque of originals and covers, the band’s bright rock ‘n’ roll captures a perfect Sunday — cold beers, a warm breeze and a shimmering set of roots-rock and bar-band balladeering.

“There’s almost like a punk edge to it live,” says Justin Gorski,
accordion and piano player for the Cleveland quartet. “I’ll play
nonsense sometimes. I’ll just bang on shit with my fists. We channel
that rock ‘n’ roll energy. This is live. Let’s kick some ass.”

The Magpies have just returned from a three-week, 14-stop,
cross-country tour from Dayton to Denton, Texas, promoting
Strangers, their new record of summer-soul music. They call
their sound “indiefolkrockrevivalism,” and on the new album, that means
nimbly navigating roots-infused blues (“Keep Me Away From You”),
bombastic barroom bombers (“Bridge”) and sweet folk ballads (“Behind
These Walls”). It sounds like the Jayhawks playing Jackson Browne
covers with Eric Lindell. The man singing is Roger Hoover, guitarist,
frontman and founder.

“I’m strictly lyrics and a few chords,” says Hoover. “The rest of
these guys take it over and turn into that Magpies sound.”

“This is a more accurate answer,” interjects Doug McKean, the band’s
bassist (his brother Dave McKean plays drums). “Roger writes the song
entirely. And it’s a really great, well-arranged demo with harmonies
and two or three guitar parts. He plays it for us, and then we do
something entirely different with it.”

It’s a good chemistry, one that some may remember from a band called
Roger Hoover & the Whiskeyhounds, which kicked around town from
2001- 2005. The Magpies are a reincarnation of that band, retooled with
“great musicians that I could sit down and work on songs with,” says
Hoover. Strangers is the Magpies’ second album. The 12 crisp,
blues-tinged, classic-rock tunes were originally written with the
Whiskeyhounds, and they’re a bit of a departure from the ones on the
Magpies’ 2008 debut, Eastern Standard Time.

“This album is a lot more like we are live, and we needed to refresh
these songs,” says Hoover. “We knew we were going out on this tour, so
we needed to have something. But we’ve been really busy working on new
material while on the road. We’re going to take the rest of the year
off and really focus on another album.”

The Magpies are hoping to get a new record out by April next year.
But for now, fans can enjoy some old classics in a refried rock form on
Strangers: “Dead Man’s Shoes” goes from folk troubadour to
static-filled guitar western; “Kisses for Free” takes old solo acoustic
guitar and retrofits it for an American pop band; every track gets
similarly reworked with electric guitars, piano and multiple harmonies.
The entire record gets smothered in the Magpies’ recipe of
blues-battered, neo-folk rock ‘n’ roll. The secret ingredient is the
band’s energy, which it serves up hot and spicy every night on the
road.

“We get pretty excited about what we’re doing,” says Gorski. “We
have fun playing this music. It invigorates me to play the songs again.
That shows just in the pure frickin’ enjoyment on stage —
especially when the crowd wants to join in. Come be apart of that
journey.”

music@clevescene.com

This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2009.