New England Music Scrapbook
Construction Joe

Construction Joe
Cry Uncle (CD, Sonic Dirt, 1997)

Nelson Caldwell: vocals, cello, guitar, casio
Trevor Crist: trap drum set
David Kamm: vocals, guitar, banjo, lap steel, harmonica
Nicole Valcour: vocals, bass

Construction Joe was/is a fine band from Burlington, Vermont. We don't pretend to know a lot about them. In fact, we just learned of the group on a tip from a friend, who kindly loaned us the band's enjoyable Cry Uncle album.

The members of Construction Joe are masters of more than one sound. A quick listen reveals old-timey harmonies here and punk-rock electric guitar there. If I didn't know where they are from, I certainly would have guessed Boston. The effect of this album is as if the early Nervous Eaters were to combine with the Banjo Dan and the Mid-Nite Plowboys. Whether or not he was a direct influence on Construction Joe, former-Vermonter Jimmy Ryan certainly helped create the music scene that allowed these four to flourish in Burlington.

We have little information about Construction Joe's career, though the bio. at their Web site provides some details. David Kammerer (codename, Kamm) became known around Burlington for his "ragtimepunkjazz" guitar performances. Then, he and bass-player Nicole Valcour were members of the band, Famous Potato. Late in 1995 when Kamm was looking to record a solo album, he recruited Valcour and percussionist Trevor Crist for that project. Evidently the pair of them refused to leave, and Construction Joe was happily born. Cellist Nelson Caldwell joined the band in the spring of 1996 and, as the Web site says, caused a "perverse sensation."

A record review in the Phoenix and concert listings in the Globe show that Construction Joe made inroads into the vital Boston scene.

Burlington, Vermont, has an interesting rock history.* Back in the mid-1970s, a Burlington weekly, the Vanguard Press, was readily available at one of our newsstands here. And for the only time to my knowledge, it was fairly easy for us Southern Vermonters to keep up on the musicians of the Northern part of our state. I well remember an article about the development of Burlington's alternative-rock community, which said that--in the beginning -- a show by Boston's La Peste turned a lot of heads. If so, it was a good thing, for Burlington in the 1980s was producing some excellent music. We always liked the Cuts (David Dano, Frank Egan, Eric Jacobs), and the Decentz** (Brett Hughes, Pamela Polston, Jim Ryan, Gordon Stone, Peter Torrey; and honorable mention to saxophonist Gus Zeising) was one of our favorite bands of that decade. And if we remember right, Pinhead (Tor Borgstrom, Bill Kinzie, Doug Knapp, Jeff Spencer, Mark Spencer) had even better success in New York City than they did in their hometown.

Marc Levy of the Boston Phoenix gave the Construction Joe album (CD, Sonic Dirt, 1996?) a three-star rating, at a time when that publication was not handing out stars as freely as it once did. Levy wrote that Construction Joe's mix survived "on flippant lyrics backed by not-so-flippant bottlenecked or bent strings, distortion-fraught chords, or peculiar arrangements of percussion and banjo."

We are happy to add Construction Joe to the New England Music Scrapbook's artist roster, though we are aware that this profile does not come close to reporting the band fully. If one of the members would send us materials, perhaps we could make revisions to record Construction Joe in all its glory. -- Alan Lewis, 3/29/2001

* We plan to rise to the challenge of getting through this notice without once using the "Ph" word.

** Once our filing project is farther along, we will check to see whether our archive has enough material to provide for a decent Decentz profile. The materials we've put away already, though, contain a curious omission that seems well worth mentioning. One is given the impression that the band's great extended-play recording, Get in Trouble (12" EP, Philo, 1982), was their entire recorded output. In fact, though, we have fond memories of a wonderful video -- about a half-hour or a full hour in length, as we recall -- that ran on Vermont ETV's Guest of the House broadcast. Two tracks by the Decentz appeared on the various artists compilation, The Attic Tapes.

Two additional things: 1. Can anyone explain to us the significance of Construction Joe's car logo? 2. Those who have browsed our site may notice that we have, indeed, since found a fair amount of information about the Decentz, one of my personal favorite '80s bands. -- Alan Lewis, 2/10/2002

Copyright © 2001 by Alan Lewis. All rights reserved.

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