Country Music News (countrymusicnews.ca) - January 2006
LIVE AT THE BAYOU - CD Review
Ball And Chain are an Ottawa-based duo comprised of Michael Ball
and Jody Benjamin. This marks their third album, and this time around weget their whole entourage of The Wreckers, in an hour-plus "live"
show recorded at The Bayou Blues & Jazz Club in Ottawa. It's hard to tell who is having the most fun.
Ball and Chain & the Wreckers, the
audience who participated in the two-night recording, or the listener who now gets a chance to hear the results.
Ball and Chain are diehard country traditionalists, who add their personal touches vocally and musically to some of the classic songs
presented here; augmenting that reverence with some original compositions that fit snugly with the authentic material. Songs made
famous by Roger Miller, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, George Jones, Ray Price, Webb Pierce are featured throughout this "concert", and
the listener comes away with a "Ryman feeling".
Jody Benjamin is featured as the lead vocalist and she pays proper homage to the traditional values of this material, something that
most of today's country divas have failed to recognize or capture. Jody
Benjamin also contributes three original tunes to the mix, with the
hurtin' songs Your Love By Heart and I Don't Drink In 3/4 Time, coming off as standouts on the album.
Michael Ball's fiddle work is also a highlight here, featured front
and center on instrumental offerings like the Cajun tune Mamou Two
Step and his own composition, Redemption Ground.
So as not to scare-off anyone who may not be totally into the "real tuff", Ball & Chain also include versions here of tunes written
and/or popularized by such contemporaries as Steve Earle, Buddy Miller and John Hiatt, and Canada's own Melwood Cutlery.
- Larry Delaney
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Country Jukebox (www.countryjukebox.de) - January 2004
TROUBLE ALL THE TIME - CD Review
What Jody Benjamin and Michael Ball do on their album titled Trouble All The Time is genuine hardcore traditional Country Music that just
doesn't get any better. This duo from Ottawa, which has been around
for some time now, goes by the name
Ball And Chain and has in its bag
nothing less than traditional country music with regular sorties into
Bluegrass, Old Time and Cajun creating variety. The two are
particularly taken with the songs of Hank Williams and Webb Pierce, the
latter also being Jody's personal favourite, as you can read in the
liner notes of this album that is peppered with lots of splashes of
colour and little surprises. With You Win Again, You're Gonna
Change (or I'm Gonna Leave) and I Just Don't Like This Kind of
Livin' they have at once covered three Williams classics. Using the
simplest instruments and just the right amount of vocal twang, Jody and
Michael bewitch the listener and transport him to a time long past.
Jody's voice is so genuine and pure it would conjure up an approving
smile on the face of Hank himself. We bet it would be no different for
Webb Pierce if he could hear the two Ball and Chain remakes of his hits
Don't Do It Darlin' and Wondering.
Without a doubt, the cover of the Stanley Brothers' The Memory of Your
Smile and the new recording of Johnny Cash and June Carter's jewel
Jackson are among the other highlights of an album that is guaranteed
to offer more enjoyable moments than most major productions whose
budgets have gobbled up a sum many times larger than that available to
Ball and Chain.
see original article: HERE
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Country Music News (countrymusicnews.ca) - June 2003
TROUBLE ALL THE TIME - CD Review
Sessions recorded in someone's living room usually trigger warning bells to stay clear of
but this is one dynamite exception to that rule.
Ball And Chain is an Ottawa-based duo featuring
the talents of Michael Ball and
Jody Benjamin, and they create all kinds of magic with this
homespun album; thanks largely to Jody Benjamin's interpretations of hardcore traditional
country music. She can sing a Hank Williams or a Webb Pierce song like few female voices before
her have been able to capture. It's gutsy stuff, with all kinds of hurtin' heartbreak in the
vocal delivery. The barebones, living room recording actually comes off sounding as if Hank's
Drifting Cowboys Band were in the room...but it's really Michael Ball kicking in his acoustic bass
and scorching fiddle and Benjamin twangin' away on her six-string. The couple are supported musically
by gifted steel player Danny Artuso (remembered for his early-80's days with
Diane Gentes &
The Drugstore Cowboys), and Jordan Officer on guitar and fiddle tracks.
Jody Benjamin is no stranger to the traditional side of country. The Saskatchewan-bred singer has
been a staple on the Ottawa music scene as a member of the k.d.lang influenced Toasted Westerns duo.
Michael Ball is a gifted fiddle player with leanings towards the Cajun side of things
(he's part of Keith (Prairie Oyster) Glass' sidebar bands The Twisters and Main Squeeze.
As "Ball And Chain" the pair debuted on their Bare Bones CD released in 2001. This new album
is something else!!
Benjamin is obviously hooked on Hank and Webb. She covers three of Williams' classic tunes,
You Win Again; You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave) and I Just Don't Like This Kind Of Livin;
and delivers each with a vocal twang that would surely put a smile on Hank Williams' face if
he could hear the effort (maybe he is listening - he's been known to haunt a few living rooms).
She is equally adept with the Webb Pierce material, and admits (in the album's liner notes)
that he is her favorite. No kidding...just have a listen to her version of Wonderin';
and the wonderful cover of Don't Do It Darling, the 1957 hit by Webb Pierce, which had the
distinction of being his own 'cover' of the same song recorded five years earlier under the
different title of That Heart Belongs To Me.
Michael Ball shows a lot of spunk here too, and his vocal work, usually in a back-up role,
is quite effective. One of the better duets is a lively interpretation of the Johnny Cash &
June Carter nugget, Jackson. A version of the Stanley Brothers
bluegrass haunt, The Memory of
Your Smile comes off as another highlight of the package.
Jody Benjamin also shows a neat touch with her own songwriting, contributing handsome
efforts in Golden Earrings
and Infinite Blue.
So...don't worry 'bout that 'living room' studio.
Trouble All The Time has more enjoyable moments
in it than most of today's big budget bells and whistles productions.
- Larry Delaney
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The Ottawa Citizen - May 26, 2001
Who would have thunk it? Old cowboy songs aren't dead; in fact, they're being recorded right here in Ottawa.
Local couple Jody Benjamin (Bovine Sisters, Zydeco Loco, and one half of the Toasted Westerns) and Michael Ball (Rockabayou, Zydeco Loco, Lonesome Paul and the Valley Ramblers) have teamed up to produce an album remarkable for it's simplicity and heart.
The aptly named Bare Bones consists solely of Benjamin's guitar, Ball's fiddle, and the vocal chords of both. The 17 tracks are almost all covers, ranging from Hank Williams, Julie Miller, and George Jones to Marty Robbins, Gene Autry, and Webb Pierce. Ball and Benjamin each provide an original, including the latter's wistful, yodel-laden lament, "Last Cowboy", a tribute to Alby Cole, the last cowboy in Parkbeg, Sask.
With Bare Bones, Ball and Benjamin have perfectly recreated that front-porch feel; a jam session on a warm summers eve, where no one has to go home anytime soon and all the listener has to do is close his eyes and hum along.
- Bruce Deachman, OTTAWA SCENE
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Ottawa X-Press - May 24, 2001
Bare Bones, a western music fan's wet dream.
Ball and Chain remains squarely in the realm of old-timey country music.
The fact that Bare Bones was recorded straight off the floor, with no overdubs,
lends an even more authentic feel to the music.
- S. Flood
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Regina Leader Post - October 27, 2001
Ball and Chain drag out some ghosts of country music
While heavy metal and glam rock have long since staked their claim as the sountrack to Halloween with wild costumes and fog machines, when it comes to truly haunting music, it doesn't get much more chilling than the high lonesome yodeling of old time country music...no other genre comes close to country's ability to send shivers down listener's spines. The Ottawa-based duo Ball and Chain seem to understand this implicitly...
...The song "Last Cowboy" is written about a real guy named Alby Cole who lives on a farm outside of Parkbeg....Although Alby himself may be elusive, fans of old-time music and the characters both real and ethereal that populate its storied past will find his legend sung full and strong whenever Ball and Chain takes the stage.
- Emmet Matheson
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