Today’s post is a musical number. Rudi and I first discovered Caravan of Thieves on the local PBS affiliate when we were in Connecticut visiting my folks. I was so taken with their 15-minute spot that I immediately looked up their schedule to see if they’d be playing locally. [In the process of writing this post, I realized this is totally a lie. I first encountered them through their rendition of “The Grinch,” which I included on my 2010 Christmas mix.]
The quartet, who are based in Connecticut, plays a broad swath of music that could be described as swing/folk/jazz/klezmer fusion. They’re comprised of a husband (who’s particularly talented) and wife team who are the main vocalists/guitar players/percussionists, an upright bassist (or, at least, a guy who plays the upright bass), and a violinist/fiddler.
They played in Old Town Alexandria a couple weeks ago at a converted single-screen movie theater. It was a beautiful space for a show, but I felt the group either needed a slightly smaller space to make their set feel a little more immediate (that isn’t quite the right word, but it’s the best I can come up with right now) or maybe less inhibiting for the audience or an outdoor space that would have encouraged whirling and twirling.
“Raise the Dead” was the final song in their encore and one of the songs they invited audience participation for.
If they play anywhere near you, I highly recommend seeing them, because they’re a lot of fun. We’re even contemplating heading to Philly just to catch an encore performance next month!
