A Visit with Hot Club of Cowtown
Austin-Based Group Reawakening Western Swing Tradition
Whit Smith performs live at NPR's Studio 4B. Paul Schomer/NPR News hide caption
'Ghost Train' CD cover hide caption
The group's name draws influence from guitarist Django Reinhardt's Hot Club of France and the classic Western swing style of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. But Hot Club of Cowtown — guitarist Whit Smith, fiddler Elana Fremerman, and bassist Jake Erwin — is alive and swinging in the 21st century.
The band members recently stopped by NPR's Studio 4B to talk about their music with NPR's John Ydstie and play some tunes from their danceable repertoire.
Fremerman and Smith met in New York City in the mid-1990s. Now based in Austin, Texas, the trio added Erwin as a replacement for a former bass player three years ago.
Hot Club of Cowtown has five albums to its credit, including its most recent CD, Ghost Train. A live CD, Continental Stomp, is due in stores later this month.