In 2016, Texas-based punk rock quartet Riverboat Gamblers, who blasted the early aughts with explosive rock music and wild stage antics, recorded a video performance with genre-mixing choral collective Panoramic Voices and played some of their original songs with an orchestral twist. In March, the band posted the songs on Bandcamp and cheekily tweeted out, “We never put it up because we were saving it for a pandemic.” Luckily, the Gamblers’ experimentation has paid off in this four-song recording.
The chorus voices and stringed instruments add another dimension to the band’s music in a way that wouldn’t be found anywhere else. The Gamblers know how to play, and they take the reins on their songs throughout the recording—Fadi El-Assad’s lead guitar and Mike Weibe’s singing are the centerpiece for everything they play together. “The Tearjerker,” is a mellow song that incorporates soft rock and Americana augmented with violins and human voices. “Gallows Bird,” is a bluesy roll with a heavy, dirty-sounding bass. “Robots May Break Your Heart” sounds the closest to the Gamblers’ Warped Tour days, and “Lottie Mae” rings out like a slow dance number at a high school prom.
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