GUITAR ARMY
Twangorama's CD was a long time coming, but the experience has tightened the musicians' bond
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Friday, June 08, 2007
By Keith Spera
Music writer

In 30 years, progressive fusion band Woodenhead has managed to release a scant six recordings. So it's no surprise that Twangorama, guitarist Jimmy Robinson's other main vehicle, took nearly a decade to issue its first official album. That pace, Robinson admits, "is really pathetic. But everybody has a million other gigs, and we've never been full-time at it."
After numerous personnel changes, the Twangorama lineup has finally solidified with Robinson, Cranston Clements and Phil DeGruy on guitars, backed by drummer Mark Whitaker and bassist Paul Clement. That stability finally cleared the path for Twangorama to record and release its self-titled debut CD.
The band celebrates the new "Twangorama" with a show tonight at Carrollton Station divided into both acoustic and electric sets. Twangorama is also featured at Thursday's early-evening "Ogden After Hours" show at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
Robinson, DeGruy and Clements rank among the most versatile and proficient guitarists in a city not necessarily known for guitar heroes. As teenagers, Robinson and Clements performed at "love-ins" along the lakefront in the late 1960s. Robinson met DeGruy while attending Loyola University.
But they never joined forces in a formal setting until Robinson was asked to assemble a band for a Jazzfest-week gig in the mid-1990s at the old True Brew coffeehouse downtown. In addition to Clements, whose résumé includes stints with Boz Scaggs, Dr. John and the Neville Brothers, and DeGruy, who deploys a custom 17-string combination guitar-harp and a merciless sense of satirical humor, the original Twangorama lineup featured Scott Goudeau and Lu Rojas on guitars.
Together, the five guitarists could indulge their individual talents in a collective setting. Eventually, Goudeau, then Rojas, left, and Robinson brought aboard Whitaker and Clement, the Woodenhead rhythm section.
PAGE 2