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Them boys ain’t right: Dang-it Bobbys play jazzy tunes at Americana fest

Them boys ain’t right: Dang-it Bobbys play jazzy tunes at Americana fest
Photo by Caroline Ourso

They’re jazzing up the folk festival.

A pair of former jazz musicians will bring some bluesy riffs and down-home humor to the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival this weekend, when they play a free show at Dumbo’s Superfine on Sept. 23. The Dang-it Bobbys country and bluegrass duo say that they use their jazz roots to compose songs, and keep the tunes accessible with lyrics that tell a story.

“The music really does have the harmonic complexity of a jazz tune but remains listenable as popular music because people can relate to it,” said guitarist Luca Benedetti, who lives in Park Slope.

Benedetti teamed up with Kris Bauman, who plays banjo, sings, and writes the music, when they were both working in a music store. The pair blended their various musical interests to form the Dang-it Bobbys, inspired by a wide variety of artists, including Paul Simon, Beck, Duke Ellington, and Thelonius Monk, said Bauman.

“Stylistically both of us come from pretty large musical backgrounds where we’ve heard all kinds of different music and we kind of bring all that,” he said.

The pair’s songs also tend to have elements of humor and humility, he said.

“There’s some universality of being in a tight spot and somehow getting through it and laughing about it later,” Bauman said.

At Superfine, the pair will play some of their favorite hits, including “Sad Sack” about a guy who cannot get the girl of his dreams, and “The Cow Song,” about a cow who wants to be abducted by an alien.

The humor and unexpected turns of the band’s music matches its name, a catch-phrase from the animated sitcom “King of the Hill,” which ended in 2010 but recently made an Internet comeback.

“The father is always shocked at what the son [Bobby] does, because the son’s not really turning out the way he expected — it happens all the time on the show,” Bauman said. “Now it’s this huge Internet meme.”

Brooklyn Americana Music Festival takes place at various locations between Dumbo and Red Hook from Sept. 20 to Sept. 23. www.bkamf.com

The Dang-it Bobbys at Superfine (126 Front St. at Pearl Street in Dumbo, www.bkamf.com). Sept. 23 at 1 pm. Free.

Reach reporter Julianne McShane at (718) 260–2523 or by e-mail at jmcshane@cnglocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @juliannemcshane.