Moon Over the Freeway

Similar in style to The Ditty Bops' genre-blending swing-revivalist self-titled debut album, "Moon Over the Freeway" is a noticable step up in lyrical quality. The track selection is quite a bit more upbeat, as well, with less than half the album being folky ballads this time around.

If you loved The Ditty Bops first album then you'll love this one, too. If you've never heard of The... read more

Description: A singing duo of Amanda Barrett on mandolin and dulcimer, and Abby DeWald on guitar, this is the second release by The Ditty Bops. They draw liberally on genres of yore, hopping from western swing to vaudevillian theatrics, jazz, and folk music. They mine a vein similar to what Dan Hicks was doing with his Hot Licks in the early seventies, though their compositional sensibilities embrace a wider realm. Sympathetically produced by Mitchell Froom (who also plays keyboards, though the dazzling turn at the piano on "Aluminum Can" is by Greg Rutledge), they're joined by some of the finest players to be found in Los Angeles
A singing duo of Amanda Barrett on mandolin and dulcimer, and Abby DeWald on guitar, this is the second release by The Ditty Bops. They draw liberally on genres of yore, hopping from western swing to vaudevillian theatrics, jazz, and folk music. They mine a vein similar to what Dan Hicks was doing with his Hot Licks in the early seventies, though their compositional sensibilities embrace a wider realm. Sympathetically produced by Mitchell Froom (who also plays keyboards, though the dazzling turn at the piano on "Aluminum Can" is by Greg Rutledge), they're joined by some of the finest players to be found in Los Angeles, including the ever-apt percussion of Elvis Costello's longtime drummer, Pete Thomas. While the title song opens the set on a quaint note, by the third number, "Fall Awake," it becomes clear that The Ditty Bops are not to be pigeonholed. The set's one cover, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant's "Bye Bye Love," is sweet but breaks the parade of their own resonant and mysterious songs. --David Greenberger

Album Description
"Combining a magical attic's worth of dusty musical idioms, iridescent golden harmonies and a quirky lyrical worldview, The Ditty Bops provide a refreshing antidote to the misbegotten, soul-grinding notion of thinking you know what happens next.... Abby DeWald (guitar) and Amanda Barrett (mandolin/dulcimer) embody the simple Saturday afternoon pleasures—of thrift store finds and getting lost in the library—with their amalgam of ragtime, jazz, vaudeville, Western swing and folk, but it would sell the Bops short to lump them in with nostalgia-driven absolutists." (Austin Chronicle) The Ditty Bops are different, way different, and that makes the singing-songwriting-playing duo of Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald special. On their second album, Moon Over The Freeway, co-produced by Mitchell Froom (Suzanne Vega, Crowded House, Elvis Costello) as was their 2004 self-titled debut, The Ditty Bops are strangely, wonderfully captivating.

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