Leicester Bangs
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe - Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)
He did better with this one. This is the second Breadfoot album I’ve reviewed. I was a bit critical of the earlier one, saying it lacked variety. This is much, much better. Breadfoot plays guitar and banjo; Anna Phoebe plays violin and fiddle. A seven track mini-album of instrumental music - American folk, railroad tunes, hillbilly, Stephane Grappelli jazzy, emotional, cerebral, wistful, playful. The guitar is kept simple and repetitive and the fiddle cuts loose with the melodies. The partnership is highly agreeable. The notes say the album was fuelled by, and named after, tea and biscuit binges with producer Leo Abrahams. Not Jack Daniels with Micky, then, or coke with Phil. Good music. www.breadfoot.com / www.annaphoebe.com
— Paul C.

Acousticmusic.com
Tea With Leo
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe
A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
by Mark S. Tucker
(progdawg@hotmail.com)

Rusticity sieved through a cheesecloth of variant modern deconstructionism —and don't infer that fool Foucault (or Derrida, for that matter) into the equation—might best encapsulate this disc of lazy dusky refrains from a wheatbelt rimmed by purpling mountains and gathering stormclouds. Phil Aaberg's Out of the Frame hit this note years ago, as had Will Ackerman, playing Oregon (the group, not the state) against a more rooted Americana shot through with Impressionism and various Romantic leanings. Reductionism is inherent in such applications because it plays, as we see here, so beautifully with air and space. Thus, Tea with Leo equally features Breadfoot on dobro and banjo and Anna Phoebe on violin and Violectra, both adding in percussion (including piano, a percussive instrument) before gathering producer Leo Abrahams in for more of the latter, capped by a small spot of organ work.

This is indeed music to sip chamomile tea by, happy the day's chores are done, grateful a couple of hours can be grabbed for thought while the sun westers in a sky drawing curtains with settling rays and layering mists. Phoebe's as much the star as Breadfoot, with an agile set of strings and a lyrical lilt, expanding each cut's borders (seven of 'em, totaling a rather disappointing set of little more than a half-hour) and pulling the staccato banjo up and away from its wooden bench, lifting the instrument to appreciate trackless expanses and aching freedoms.

The disc's cover is elegantly cartoonish—kind of a cross between a page from a staid indie comic book and the sort of bric-a-brac the New Yorker tosses in when it runs dry of witty cartoons, spare and momentarily surreal, as though grandma's mind had wandered for a moment while reaching for a cookie in the middle of the afternoon ablution. Tea has a few moments of verve and vigor, but they're precious few, rightly so, and contrast nicely with the sedentary mainstay.

Don't think that when the seemingly last song peters out the CD's finished, though. In an exceedingly tiresome play on expectations, the disc claims to have 24 cuts. It doesn't. You just have to wait an unjustifiably long time for it to cycle through artificially induced silent jumps to hear the last selection. That sort of juvenile tomfoolery wore itself out ages ago. Luckily, the quality of the music lessens the grimace arising when this foolish "trick" is discovered.

With releases like this, however, it becomes more and more apparent that roots music is neither dying nor antiquated but going through a long meticulous process of discovering its own strengths and dimensions, maturing into a classicality few would have expected. It's to be hoped that Breadfoot and Phoebe's next effort will subscribe a full agenda, not a scant half-hour, as all this righteous little set of miniatures does is whet the whistle, albeit hugely satisfyingly, for more.

Breadfoot feat. Anne Phoebe – Tea with Leo
(JeeziePeezie)
by Deanne Sole

New York-based Breadfoot picks at his banjo and six-strong Dobro like a country boy. “My brother, he had hisself this old pick-up truck,” he writes in the notes, explaining the title of “International Esther”. “Her name was Esther … Esther always got us where it was we was goin’.” On Tea with Leo he’s joined by Anna Phoebe, violin player, and String Mistress of the prog-classical Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Here, she switches between a country fiddle sound ("Polly Loved Me (I Know)”, “A Hard Day in Manhattan") and an elegant formal sweep ("Hilary Rose”, “Smoking on the Stoop"). The violin gathers itself up in shorter noises and relaxes into longer ones, opening and closing like an anemone while the plucked banjo string pins it down, insistent upon common good sense. They do so much together that Tea With Leo feels like a full album even though it’s only 25 minutes long. Unless you’re really out to get as much noise-time as you can for your buck (a reasonable enough aspiration, I guess), then there’s no reason for it to be any longer. Credit goes to “the fine folks at 12 Bar” who brought the pair of them together.

BREADFOOT Featuring ANNA PHOEBE- TEA WITH LEO
RECORD LABEL- JEEZIEPEEZIE RECORDS
By Kristin

"Tea With Leo" was recorded in London in a mere two days. You can't tell from all of the musical expertise that's proudly exuberated thru out this CD that they recorded in that short period of a time. It's so precise you'd think they ate slept and breathed their songs.

Anna Phoebe joins Breadfoot on this short but sweet CD. Anna is an accomplished violinist who has played her bright pink Violectra with the likes of George Michaels, LeAnn Rimes and Nitin Sawhney. Anna's status as of now she is the lead soloist for the double platinum album selling Trans Siberian Orchestra.

There is quite a lot of banjo, violin, and steel guitar on this LP but they all compliment each other on so many levels. The second track "Hilary Rose" for some reason pecks at my heart strings within the first musical notes, it's almost beautiful the way they combine it all. Breadfoot are more known for their strumming hillbilly type of flow that you imagine them stomping on a porch
somewhere with a grain of wheat stuck between their teeth and granny on the rocking chair smiling. Breadfoot have shared the stage with Richard Buckner, and The Avett Brothers.

Putting together these two have proved that oil and water sometimes do mix...and mix well. I used to hear banjo's and all I could think of was the movie "Deliverance", that has now changed and I can finally see the light, and that all banjo's are not evil! "Tea with Leo" is mesmerizing as it is amazing. Produced by the very talented Leo Abrahams who has traded time with David Holmes and Brian Eno. A lot of people will be affected by this blooming flowers dainty but effective radiance, it almost leaves you in a Zen type state of mind.

ReadJunk
Breadfoot "Tea With Leo"
Record Label: Jeeziepeezie Records
Genre: Chamber Folk

An all-instrumental composite of southern banjo twang, melancholy acoustic guitars, and wonderful violin scores (I'm a mush for violins).

This album was really interesting, but the mood is consistently sad. It's like popping Qaaludes every 20 minutes.

It made me think of global warming. And my dog Sebastian who died when I was 17... Damn you Breadfoot!!!

Sniff**... I miss you Bastian... **Sniff

Overall Rating: 2 stars

Reviewer: MDS

‘Honey On a Spoon’
Breadfoot Featuring Anna Phoebe "Tea With Leo"
Artists: Stephan Meyers and Anna Phoebe with Leo Abrahams on percussion
JeeziePeezie Records 16892-67412 (2007)
7 Tracks
Running Time: 30 minutes

Though a shorter than average CD, "Tea With Leo" combines the talents of Breadfoot (Dobro and banjo) and Anna Phoebe (acoustic violin.) If their names don't ring a bell now, they will soon. Breadfoot is popular on the folk music scene, while Anna Phoebe is String Master for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This CD has seven instrumental pieces that Breadfoot has written and they combine styles of hoedown, down home and just plain Saturday night melancholy. "Hilary Rose" has violin and stringed instrument moving together like honey on a spoon. The two artists switch styles on "Polly Loved Me (I Know)" for a hoedown. "Kecha" begins slowly and then ends up like Roy Clark's "Orange Blossom Special." Finally, "On The Day That I Go" is a melancholy ending for someone who knows it is time. Are you listening, Breadfoot and Anna? Next time, have a longer CD. 30 minutes is too short. (Copyright 2007 Marie Asner)

V.16 No.4 | January 25 - 31, 2007 | This Week's Music
Sonic Reducer
By Amy Dalness
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)

There's beauty captured within the songs on Tea with Leo . The sounds produced by both guitar and fiddle aren't from inanimate objects—they stream from living souls pouring passion and energy into each song. It's easy to imagine Breadfoot and Anna Phoebe sitting on the back porch of a country home, playing music as day fades into night—pure bluegrass soul hanging in the air.

Iconoclast
‘Tea With Leo’ Provides Nostalgic Country Blues
BY LEON SMITH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
BALTIMORE, Md.
—
Morphius Records, Inc. and JeeziePeezie Records have a hit on their hands with a new collaboration featuring nostalgic country blues performed by
Breadfoot (aka Stephan Meyers) and evocative violin by Anna Phoebe, a String Master of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Organ and percussion by Leo Abrahams, the producer, also enhances the eight-track album called
“Tea With Leo.”

Celebrating the folk roots of banjo, guitar, and violin virtuosity, the album offers the listener a mixture of sounds that areemotional, traditional, and contagious. The recordings are light and breezy and bring back memories of yore.

Tracks include: A Hard Day in Manhattan, Hilary Rose, Polly Loved Me (I Know), International Esther, Kecha, Smoking on the Stoop, On the Day that I Go, and an untitled bonus track.

The blues sounds might fit several categories, urban and rural, but there is a definite Deep South feel about them, conjuring up thoughts of Depression-era workers relaxing after a hard day, lonesome nights on the prairie, and a cool breeze during a rest in the cotton fields.

The mixture of the banjo and violin in “Tea With Leo” have a supernatural, haunting quality, but key elements of the album are the quality sounds by highly talented artists Anna Phoebe and Breadfoot and their ability to transport the listener backwards in time.

Collected Sound
Mini-Review: Tea with Leo by Breadfoot
Album Name: Tea with Leo
Artist: Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe
Year/Label: 2006 / Independent

I have a really hard time with instrumental music. It always leaves me wanting something more. Like there’s something missing…and in my opinion there is. Usually what moves me about music is the lyrics and the voice singing them. So I really hesitate to “review” instrumental stuff unless it moves me in other ways. I’m sorry to say, this one does not quite do it for me. I am also not a fan of bluegrass, which this sounds like to me (I’m sure someone will write to me and tell me I’m completely wrong, so I’ll emphasize….to ME).

I mention it because even though it’s not really something I would listen to by choice, I can tell that the musicians are very talented. The songs have nice melodies and they’re played well.

Luckily they’re on CD Baby so you can give a little listen and see if it’s right for you.

The Louisville Eccentric Observer
By Anna Wilson

This album is gorgeous.

All instrumental. Mostly banjo or steel guitar and violin. It’s a short album, but not lacking for content. I didn’t know whether I wanted to go to a Hoedown or go fishin’. The sound is down-home, folky and sweet. Both musicians are obviously talented, and together they complement each other well.

It’s the kind of thing you might hear in a potpourri-scented craft or antiques store, but you would notice it and probably like it if you did.

The two put out a surprisingly rich and intelligent sound, while remaining simple and uncluttered. I could recommend this album to nearly anyone and firmly expect they would like it on some level. You can recognize quality when you hear it.

The Vail Trail
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe "Tea With Leo"
December 20, 2006, by Charlie Owen

Simple and beautiful, that's really the only way to describe the new CD “Tea with Leo.” Two well-respected musicians, Breadfoot (Stephan Meyers) and Anna Phoebe, got together to play for the love of music. It is truly a rare thing these days. They had to know when they made this album that it was not going to top any best-seller lists. But that's the point. It's the purity of this kind of music that makes it so compelling. Almost the only sounds you will hear on this album are guitar, banjo, and violin. No vocals and no drums holding tempo. The strings work overtime telling the stories without words. There are seven songs in all (eight if you include the bonus track hidden at the end of the disc), and each one sets a mood that is hard to capture with traditional song styling.

Recorded in only two days in London, it’s amazing that the sound is not rushed, although it is delightfully under-produced. It possesses the kind of raw sound associated with garage punk and anti-folk music. Breadfoot takes you back in time to a place where instruments were played on front porches after a hard day in the fields. The sounds that he summons from the banjo and guitar remind me of something you would hear on the “Oh Brother” soundtrack. And Phoebe, who is string master of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, will pull your heart out with her weepy, eerie violin playing.

This CD really does have the feel of a movie score, a really sad movie. Just listen one time and you'll know what I am talking about. I would recommend this to anyone who likes strings only, bluegrass, or moody, semi-depressing music.

Texarkana Gazette
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe "Tea With Leo"
December 2006, by Anthony Davis

Now here's a little CD you won't likely see on the radio playlist except maybe at National Public Radio or a station which features the movement out of New York called "Anti-folk"

Breadfoot is a performance stage name or tag assumed by Stephen Meyers, a flat-picking, solo acoustic musician who blends delta blues styles with traditional and nontraditional folk, country and jazz elements.

Breadfoot's partner on this beautifully constructed 25-minute disc is Anna Phoebe, violinist of Tran Siberian Orchestra and a sought-after concert performer of classical music.

What results from this digital dalliance is sometimes reminiscent of jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli and six-string one-man rhythm section, Django Reinhardt's Parisian partnership. Then at times the music impresses one as rootsy blues from the Delta, even if the delta in this case is located in the state of New York.

Breadfoot selected seven original tunes for this daunting duet, each constructed instrumentally to convey sincere emotions.

Other songs on "Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe include "Hilary Rose," "Polly Loved Me," International Esther" (a tribute to a 1965 International Harvester), "Smokin' On The Stoop" and "On The Day That I go."

Breadfoot draws comparison from critics for the similarities in his pickin' style to that of John Fahey and Pink Anderson, both highly-regarded acoustic flat-pickers.

About the only thing to nit-pick on this disc is it leaves the listener wanting more, Phoebe's virtuoso skills supplement, complement, stretches and enhance this guitarist's wonderful, musically creative work.

"Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe" is available at CD Baby on the Internet and in really, really good music shops.

TEA WITH LEO
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe
Jeeziepeezie Records
By: Doug Treadway

This is a tad strange. There are seven tracks on the album, all instrumentals, but the disc continues to track on in silence until a slightly dissonant banjo bursts forth on track 24, which is then joined by a plaintive violin for a few bars, tailing away to nothing. It is mellow music for the most part, made me think of classical players deciding to throw a hoedown.

TrifectaGram
NYC based E-Newsletter
By Alan Young

The heir apparent to the legacy of John Fahey teams up with an inspired violinist on this gorgeously rustic, fluid album of pastoral acoustic instrumentals. Like Fahey, Breadfoot blends 19th century folk, old-time country and delta blues influences but resists any impulse to be bound by the traditional constraints of any of those idioms. What results is equal parts great Sunday afternoon album and passout record: it’ll get you going as well as it gets you down for the night.

The opening track, A Hard Day in Manhattan wanders along with an understatement that would do Fahey proud, an exercise in subtlety and dynamics. It’s all melody, no garish flourishes or ostentation. The album’s second track, the wistful, 6/8 lament Hilary Rose is over too soon, barely into its sad, thoughtful testimonial. By contrast, the following cut, Polly Loved Me (I Know) is a rousing Appalachian dance, sparks flying from the frets of the six string banjo and the strings of the fiddle.

Of the other tracks on the album, the next one, International Esther is probably the most overtly Fahey-esque number and wouldn’t be out of place on Blind Joe Death. That’s high praise. Very nice hesitation step time at the end of the tune. Kecha is a brightly bouncing open-tuned Piedmont blues melody a la Pink Anderson. The album’s best single cut may be the thoughtful, gently pensive Smoking on the Stoop. The cd concludes with the 6/8 ballad On the Day that I Go, which would make a great soundtrack to that Twilight Zone episode – I think it was called Willoughby. You know the one, the guy takes Metro North from Manhattan, think’s he’s on the way home but he winds up back in the 1800s, watching the kids take hayrides through the dusty, unpaved streets of his town. There’s also rousing bonus track that kicks in after what seems eternity.

Clocking in at under half an hour, this cd’s greatest flaw is its brevity: it leaves you wanting twice as much. And not that the violin isn’t a welcome accompaniment here, but for anyone who’s heard him live, Breadfoot’s idiosyncratic vision and brilliant melodicism come through clearest when he plays solo. See him when you can. When’s the last time you danced to a guy playing acoustic guitar, all by himself, and not even singing?

Breadfoot (ft Anna Phoebe) “Tea With Leo”
(Jeeziepeezie Records 2005) Review by Mark Phillips

NYC / London acoustic work-out of unspeakable gorgeousness. Comes With A Smile’s Tom Sherriff has described this record as “extremely lovely” and that man from Brighton is right as usual- this EP has little more to offer than seven acoustic and purely instrumental moments featuring the man himself (Breadfoot- aka Stephan Meyers) on guitar and banjo with some expert and truly heavenly fiddle playing by London-based Anna Phoebe. Yet, despite it’s apparent slightness, it’s a record to treasure- Brooklyn indie Jeeziepeezie have treated us all by getting it out into the market, despite the fact that it’s unlikely to make them thousands of dollars. The whole thing was knocked together on this side of the Atlantic in the course of two days, and it has that fresh, spontaneous feel that is so valued yet so infrequently achieved; production is reminiscent of Elliott Brood’s marvellous “Tin Type”- it’s clear and warm and you really get the brilliant end of those high notes and metallic clang of the five-string. “A Hard Day In Manhattan” opens the set with a dreamy, waltz-like meander suggesting elegant 20’s afternoon tea-dances rather than the noise and confusion of urban life, though you can quite see how the music that Meyers and Phoebe make could be a refuge; it contains a yearning for some peace- or is it simply a mellow, melancholic reaction to the city? “Smoking on the Stoop” is more guitar lead, rhythmic and here the violin work suggests something akin to gypsy jazz or maybe a hint of Hebrew; “On the Day That I Go”, the final tune, pretty much takes us out the way we came in, but is perhaps even more softly spoken, and comes in at only two minutes. There’s such a strong sense of artistic identity and confidence in who they are and what they’re doing that the brevity and simplicity of the whole session suggests a level of intent that perhaps only Bloc Party have exhibited this year. www.breadfoot.com

BREADFOOT Featuring ANNA PHOEBE – Tea With Leo (Jeeziepeezie)
by TOM SHERIFF

Stephan Meyers - aka Breadfoot - is one of my favourite characters in the world of roots music. Emerging from the New York City anti-folk scene around four years ago, he has consistently delighted with his no-frills, DIY approach to recording and live performance. He books his own seemingly endless tours, issuing music largely available only from his website and at shows - á la King Creosote and his under-the-radar ilk. A charming blend of backwoods hickiness, big city suss and genuine sweetness, Breadfoot ploughs his own furrow, hoping he can pick up a few quid here or there by playing his tunes, meet some new folk, and have a coupla beers. His twig-thin frame rattling around inside baggy dungarees; the shadow of his baseball cap peak cast on his tubular beard, he strums happily away on dobro or acoustic guitar - rarely singing – stitching his sets of swampy country-blues grooves together by rambling on a bit about nothing in particular. It can be utterly compelling, and as moving as it can be chucklesome. We last heard of Breadfoot in a slightly-more-available scenario via his role in Just About To Burn alongside fellow NYC anti-folkers Paleface and Monica ‘Lil’ Mo’ Samalot. The eponymous offering (Art Monkey Records – www.artmonkey.com) of joyous indie-country that reached the eagle-eyed and bat-eared amongst us last year looks as if it may be a one-off, which is a great shame. But in direct sonic contrast with that comes Tea With Leo, recorded with London-based violinist Anna Phoebe. Where JATB was more or less a party record, this is a gentle, pretty (and, at 7 tracks over 22 minutes, brief) collection. The sleevenotes invite the listener (in vintage Breadfoot parlance) to let him know what sort of album it is, as he’s not altogether sure. Well, let me tell him, Anna and you: very simply, this is an instrumental folk record. Softly strummed, late-summer acoustic guitar, melancholy rinky-dink banjo on two songs, and the silkiest violin lilt imaginable – and that’s it. Another way of describing it is ‘extremely lovely’. Tea With Leo is one of those records you reach for to ease you into or out of a day, as it brings with it great calm and untroubled prettiness of sound that can’t help but induce wistful sighs and fond memories. It couldn’t be simpler. Why not contact the creators and let them know what you think it is. I’m fairly confident we’ll all be in musical and critical agreement."

fRoots Magazine April 2006 No. 274
And The Rest reviews

(Thumbs Up) Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea With Leo (Jeezie Peezie JP002) Nice atmospheric instrumental mini-album that blends Anna Phoebe's violins with Breadfoot's rusty-sounding National Steel and banjo. They give each other plenty of space and set up some nice bluesy/ country-based grooves - good work for two days in the studio. Contact: jeeziepeezie@yahoo.com

BREADFOOT Featuring ANNA PHOEBE – Tea With Leo (Jeeziepeezie)
by Sarah Zachrich

Breadfoot (Stephan Meyers) is best known for bringing country blues guitar 'n' banjo pickin' from the Mississippi Delta to the NYC anti-folk scene; Anna Phoebe is a London violinist who works with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Their transatlantic pairing began the same way many musical partnerships do: in a bar. However, Tea with Leo is far more than a result of plans laid between beers and scaled down in the harshness of a hangover.

It's an unassuming record, lasting about 25 minutes (including the disc's one annoying feature, the empty space before the bonus track) and remaining on a fairly even keel from beginning to end. While Breadfoot and Phoebe's organic, intricate arrangements most closely evoke Dirty Three, Tea with Leo displays none of that group's ostentatious emotional heights. Instead, it charms you with how calm and focused it can be while still sounding like two friends jamming. And that's basically what it is: Tea with Leo was recorded in two days. It shows, too -- not in the performances, which are top-notch, but in the album's open, improvisational feel. The duo coax out a variety of moods and sounds: swingy, detuned guitar on opener "A Hard Day in Manhattan", in which Phoebe's violin gets to perform most of the acrobatics; jaunty, echoing banjo and fiddling on "Polly Loved Me (I Know)"; measured picking, mysterious string melodies and finger cymbals on the East-meets-West-ish "Smoking on the Stoop".

Tea with Leo's versatility keeps it from drifting into background-music-land; Breadfoot and Phoebe are an odd pairing, but a well-matched one. Let's hope they get together again soon.

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)
par Vincent Le Doeuff

Ce projet, c'est d'abord une rencontre entre Stephen Meyers (aka Breadfoot) et Anna Phoebe. Le premier joue du banjo et de la guitare, Phoebe est une violoniste renommée. Alors quand les deux se rejoignent à Londres pour prendre un thé, ils en profitent pour inviter un certain Leo Abrahams. Entre deux biscuits, chacun prend son instrument et ce malin de Leo se charge d'enregistrer ce set spontané. Sur ce très court album, Breadfoot nous propose sept morceaux instrumentaux et acoustiques d'inspiration très country blues. Alternant ballades mélancoliques ("A Hard Day in Manhattan") avec des morceaux bien plus sautillants ("Polly Loved Me (I Know)") ces deux mélomanes subjuguent l'auditoire assez rapidement. Pourtant ce n'était pas gagné d'avance, l'unique combinaison banjo/violon n'étant pas en soi très racoleuse.

Néanmoins, on ne peut s'empêcher de trouver un gros défaut à cet album : sa durée, car on se serait bien resservi une tasse de thé.

English Translation:

This project is first of all and encounter; between Stephen Meyers, (aka Breadfoot), and Anna Phoebe. Stephen plays the banjo and the guitar, Phoebe is a renowned Violinist. So when the two of them meet in London for tea, they invite Leo Abrahams. Between cookies everyone grabs his instrument and smart Leo takes care of taping this spontaneous session. On this very short album, Breadfoot offers us seven instrumental pieces of very Country-Blues inspiration. From the melancholic ballades, ( A Hard Day in Mahattan) to pieces way happier, (Polly Loved Me I Know), these two musicians seduce the listener pretty fast even though some may have thought the unique combination of banjo and the violin a challenge.

Nevertheless; we can’t help to find a big flaw in this album; it’s length; as with tea we would love a second cup.

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)
January / February edition of Heaven magazine
(Year 8 Number 1)
Tea With Leo is een bijzonder cdtje 'brewed up in London.' De Newyoorkse fingerpicker Breadfoot vindt de dynamische Engelse violiste Anna Phoebe aan zijn zijde in zeven betoverende instrumentals. Amper 25 minuten en alleen via het internet te koop.
(www.breadfoot.com ***1/2)

Tea With Leo is a special little cd ´brewed up in London´. New York fingerpicker Breadfoot is escorted by the dynamic English violin-player Anna Phoebe on seven magical instrumentals. Sadly just 25 minutes long and only for sale on the internet
(www.breadfoot.com ***1/2)

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe – Tea With Leo (CD, Jeeziepeezie, Instrumental)

Tea With Leo proves what can happen when two truly talented individuals get together to play out of a pure love of playing. Recorded over the course of two days in London, this album features the incredible talents of guitarist/banjo player Breadfoot and British violinist Anna Phoebe. These light and breezy recordings are as fresh and inspiring as watching the sun rise. Breadfoot is quite the picker...and Ms. Phoebe's violin sounds like heaven in a digital format. This album is only available through the artists' web sites (see links above). Exceptionally rewarding tunes include "A Hard Day in Manhattan," "Polly Loved Me (I Know)," "Smoking on the Stoop," and "On the Day That I Go." Extraordinarily fulfilling. (Rating: 5+)

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)
By Dave Terpeny

Beginning around 1910 a great American migration occurred as poor sharecroppers and agrarian workers from the South began to move North in ever increasing numbers. This great migration was caused by the push of hardships in the rural South and the "pull" of opportunities in the urban North. At the start of World War I, two-thirds of rural workers who lived in the South were sharecroppers. By definition, sharecroppers worked on land they did not own and their earnings consisted of a portion of the crops they produced minus the money they owed to the landlord's commissary (store) for seeds, food and clothing. It was, to put it mildly, a rigged system.

These migrant workers brought with them a variety of traditions, from food to clothing to music and, where music is concerned, the impact was significant. In Chicago they added electricity, drums, piano, bass guitar and sometimes saxophone to the basic string/harmonica Delta sound. In New York, they added heavy jazz influences and created a more urban sound and in other cities, of course, the sound changed as well. But there were holdouts. Some Delta musicians refused to leave behind the rural and acoustic roots of their music even as it evolved at their hands. Elmore James, the “King of Slide Guitar” and the harmonica master Junior Wells are two that come to mind.

Either way, the tradition of intricate acoustic finger-picking, mournful slide guitar weeping harmonica and even the ragtime banjo and string band fiddle stayed alive and even flourished in pockets of these northern cities as the original Delta Blues thrived and evolved.

Then along came Breadfoot. A Delta blues slide guitar player and banjo picker who migrated to New York City he has presented a short but brilliant collection of Americana instrumentals on the cd Tea with Leo. Firmly rooted in the Delta, the music in these 7 songs also ranges far and wide from those roots. And with the inclusion of London Violinist Anna Phoebe, Breadfoot has brought his broad flat-picking sound into the parlors and sitting rooms, right next to the baby grand. And his backwoods country ways blend seamlessly into this high-falutin’ company.

For these songs are all lovingly crafted, masterfully honed, and hauntingly beautiful. They take the country sound, blend it with an eccentric urbaneness and manage to add just the right amount of dashing nobility. It is an appealing and charming collection of sunsets and sunrises, of stories and of emotions put to music, without a whiff of pretentiousness. So whether folkie, or blues fan, or chamber music aficionado, you’ll find pleasure in this album.

My only complaint is that I find myself forced to keep switching from a can of Schlitz to a carafe of pinot noir while listening. Still, they taste good together. So does Tea with Leo.

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe – Tea with Leo

Remember that part in the blockbuster movie “Titanic” that had the little group of musicians playing as the boat sank? Well sure I could be totally ironic and mutter something about similarities, after all there’s Leo DiCaprio and then “Tea with Leo” and that’s all filled to the brim with puns. But that’s the way the album starts off—this melancholy string-laden folksy pop tune. Anna Phoebe is a London-based violinist and the String Master/Lead Soloist for the Trans Siberian Orchestra while Breadfoot is a country boy whose porch rockin’ ways have us all spinning yarns in no time. Together, it’s magic and boasts enough buoyancy to keep the whole sucker afloat.

Breadfoot ft. Anne Phoebe - 'Tea With Leo' (Jeeziepeezie Records) Released 23/01/06
by Nia Gibbons

Okay, so every song ya'll got here's got itself a story, and ya'll can read the inlet to discover the truth thats got itself mixed up in alls those sorts-a stringy thangs. Yous gots yer six string banjo, a calimba (?!), an acoustic fiddle, six string violectra (pink, and Anna Phoebe's quite famous for her philandering with it), relations of the piano (toy and organ), percussion, of course, and loose relations of. Now, if you got all that, you probably got the sound a bit off. These slightly random country-folk based instruments and lingo magic piece themselves together in a sublime precision that'll see you swaying in agreement whatever you're doing. Ah! 'Tis the sound that, dare I say it, 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?' blessedly brought back, only not quite so blue grass.

The stories involved range from that of an ash covered, newly wallet lacking fella, who was refused a free pack of smokes on 9/11 in 'A Hard Day in Manhattan'; to women Breadfoot (the main man) loved; to more smokes' stories; and ends (almost, don't touch the player man) with 'On the Day that I Go' (though they don't actually go, so wait a minute).

Oh by the way there's no vocals, which explains the reason for writing a hay-stack (sorry) of words under their lovingly created titles. Musicians should just keep their traps shut more often, excellent, excellent. Think I may take up barn dancing again (again?).

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)
Breadfoot supplies the country blues scenery, and Anna Phoebe adds her exquisite violin. An exceptionally rich and textured set of songs. Perhaps a bit more "straight" than my regular readers might anticipate (this contains none of the agonized dramatics of a Dirty Three, for example, even though the music itself is similar), but there is a simple joy in guitar, banjo and violin.

“Tea with Leo,” by Breadfoot and Anna Phoebe (Jeeziepeezie Records)—Breadfoot is the name used by a guitar and banjo picker based in New York City, while Anna Phoebe is a London-based violinist. Not sure how the two got together, but she has apparently been working in New York City with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This is an instrumental 7 track CD (More of a CD EP—am I getting carried away with these abbreviations?) that contrasts Breadfoot’s unadorned guitar and banjo with Phoebe’s sweet violin (definitely not a “fiddle”). This “leather and lace” paring is worth a listen, though I got a little nervous in parts wondering if Breadfoot forgot to tune his guitar. 3 1/4 bottle caps. It will apparently be only available on-line through their websites.

The continuing saga of a wholly irreverent new way of reviewing albums! It's like sitting in a room with a bunch of jaded music critics and getting a snapshot of how they feel about an album. Honesty and first impressions are the key to the Bargain Basement. (opinions expressed may not hold true after repeated listenings to albums)

Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Tea with Leo (Jeeziepeezie Records)

Rocky: Dirgey backwoods folk instrumental duo - very nice guitar playing amidst soaring fiddle… banjo's good, too.
Rocky II: Anna Phoebe plays some nice, sorrowful fiddle, but boring guitar alt-country is dead.
Rocky III: Nice, won't rock. Too sweet to rock. Lovemaking to somebody who likes horses.
Rocky IV: The soundtrack to one of those Neu-Western TV shows

TEA WITH LEO Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe Jeeziepeezie Records By: Doug Treadway

TEA WITH LEO
Breadfoot featuring Anna Phoebe
Jeeziepeezie Records
By: Doug Treadway