one4review | On 22, Aug 2024

Jo Carley and the Old Dry Skulls is an energetic three-hander band,
driving along in zydaco/Appalachian/Nashville style which they describe
as Voodoo, Blues, Zombie, Monster and Rock n Roll.

Jo is striking and has a beautiful singing voice, sometimes playing a
mandolin in blues style alternating with a washboard augmented with
small cymbal and bell, accompanied by a tall guitarist with kick drum
and foot tambourine, while a double bass painted boldly with a ribcage is
plucked and bowed by the trio’s third, bushily bearded bandmate.

The focus of their songs, all written by Jo and Tim Carley, is
underlined by their songtitles which include both The Zombie and The
Devil, plus Miss Venus’s Love Spell, Not A Bone, The Oldest Spell In The
World, I’ll Put My Voodoo On You, Dead But He Won’t Lay Down, and Shake
Them Rattlin’ Bones.

While we went down south past The Meadows to hear Jo and Co, they will
soon be busily touring for the next couple of months, not just round the
country, but also in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Belgium, sometimes
with their backing singers Boogaloo Babes.

But first Jo Carley & The Old Dry Bones entertained the crowd splendidly
for an upbeat hour in Edinburgh’s Argyle Cellar Bar, enthusiastically
transporting them to the deep south.

****
Reviewed by HJ
Argyle Cellar Bar

19:00 (1 hr) until 23 Aug