Osei Essed, by Dominique Esser

As I walked into the familiar junk store/venue Goodbye Blue Monday, I immediately saw Osei Essed, lead singer of The Woes. We exchanged hugs, and “how have you beens” (I know him and a few other band members from college.) It was a quiet night at GBM. My theory is that people are finally sick of the heat, and would rather stay at home in their air conditioning. It’s a damn shame, as the group puts on one of the best shows in Bushwick.

The Woes are an authentic blues band, led by Cicero Jones and based around Osei’s songs. They play down-and-dirty roots music the way it ought to be done. The kind where I think I’m in some secret, 1950’s-era, back room club. There’s a stable of more than twenty musicians that are involved in the project, depending on who is available for gigs. Tonight, there are two saxophones, a french horn, accordion, bass, drums, banjo, guitar, and organ. Every first Wednesday of the month, they put on a showcase at Goodbye Blue Monday called Spitshine, and hand-pick artists from their pool of friends to come join them for the night.

By the time they get started, people start to trickle in. With stamping feet and a bass drum that follows suit in rhythm, they begin their set. Soon after begins a rambling banjo, percolated by the sound of an organ. Then Osei’s mighty rasp finally takes center stage. “Oh Alleluh!,” he commands, and the entire band calls out in response to him.

They continue through their set, and try on a series of traditional musical genres as they go — bluegrass, country, gospel… My favorite is “Sunset,” a New Orleans-style ballad. The rhythm section lays down a heavy, old-timey shuffle, as Osei howls about the “sunlight shinin’ in.” At the climax, the horns caw their world-weary story to the crowd, and we eat it up. Despite the overall mellowness of the evening, The Woes bring the house down with almost every song.

The success in this band is apparent for many reasons. Among them, the musicianship is top notch, and is coupled with natural talent. To me that is a critical combination. Most bands try to focus on one or the other (or neither, if you’re a really bad band), but it is very hard to have both. In this band, they do.

The next Spitshine is September 3rd.