Maxwell New Album

Folk-rock group Speed the Plough releasing new album, performing at Maxwell's ...

Maxwell’s in Hoboken will be welcoming back local folk-rock favorite, Speed the Plough, tomorrow.

The Haledon-based group will perform with several other Dromedary Records bands in a two-day concert series which starts tonight and will benefit the Roots and Wings Foundation, an organization devoted to helping kids transitioning out of the foster care system.

Their performance will also mark the release Tuesday of their sixth full-length album, “Shine,” which keyboardist and vocalist John Baumgartner described as the quintet’s greatest work.

“Probably anyone would tell you their newest work is their best,” he admitted. “But I specifically and distinctly feel that this time and it should be our greatest after pursuing this for 30 years.”

The songwriter said that “Shine” has a definite subject matter.

“It’s about romantic love, successful love, unsuccessful love,” he said. “I don’t know why it turned out that way. Probably most songwriters would be hard-pressed to tell you where their inspiration comes from. It just happens to be a lot of various love songs this time.”

One can guess that much of the inspiration stems from his 32-year marriage to band co-founder Toni Baumgartner, who sings and plays woodwind instruments.

Baumgartner says she doesn’t mind if he writes about their relationship.

“I think it’s okay because, you know, I’m not a story-telling songwriter, so they’re a little more kind of abstract,” he said.

“There are no specific accounts of ‘that night we had an argument and you threw a pot at me,’ ” he joked. “There isn’t that kind of detail in it, so it’s not a problem.”

He and his wife are accustomed, Baumgartner said, to having their personal and professional lives overlap. After all, their 20-year-old son Michael currently plays guitar for STP which has had many members over the years, including some of The Feelies.

He added that Ian and Dan Francia, sons of STP co-founder Marc Francia, play drums and bass for the group, respectively. Having the 20-something musicians in the band adds youthful energy to the group and has helped them create a multi-generational fanbase, Baumgartner said.

He also praised the younger members for their musical prowess.

Baumgartner said that as a father, he feels more strongly about helping the Roots and Wings Foundation.

Blues Bytes – David Maxwell Part Two 8.12.11 | Blues Revue

Sittin’ In With David Maxwell Part Two A Perfect World: Maxwell and Otis Spann Alone Together

By Don Wilcock

David Maxwell sees the role of piano in today’s blues band as fundamentally changed. “It changed with the addition of the guitar star being backed up by a cushion, a blanket, a support team amongst the rhythm section which would be bass, drums, and piano/organ,” he told me in Part One of our interview.

“So you never heard after a while the interplay amongst the instruments that once was prevalent in that style. You never hear the piano dart in and out.”

For half a century David Maxwell has been running against that tide, and his new release, Conversations in Blues, , a 1960 solo album.