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Charlie Ballantine: East by Midwest

By Dan McClenaghan
April 7, 2025
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A bracing guitar/bass/drums trio outing from guitarist

Charlie Ballantine

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Ballantine, East By Midwest, sounds as if it was recorded in a large, high-ceilinged warehouse with a cement floor, that floor buffed into the next dimension to a high polish, this giving the music a beautiful resonance. Retro? Think Link Wray or Dick Dale and The Deltones. Modernistic? Think

John Abercrombie

guitar
1944 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">John Abercrombie on some of his early ECM Records efforts. Or

Neil Young

guitar
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Neil Young and Crazy Horse

Ballantine and his cohorts—drummer

Dan Weiss

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Dan Weiss and bassist

Quinn Sternberg

bass
b.1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Quinn Sternberg—dig into the stripped- down trio sound and come up with a distinctive brand. The guitar is raw, rough around the edges, like the sound of the guitarists heard on the early blues albums out of Chess Records—

Hubert Sumlin

guitar, electric
1931 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Hubert Sumlin,

Howlin' Wolf

vocals
1910 - 1976

" data-original-title="" title="">Howlin' Wolf's guitar sidekick from the early '50s onward, or even Wolf (on guitar) himself, with those ragged, ringing edges.

Ballantine offers five covers and four originals. Opening with his "Storyteller," he sets a laid-back country mood, sitting on the back porch swapping tales. "Runaround" is tart and freewheeling..

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk's "Trinkle Tinkle" gives Ballantine a chance to display a loose-edged virtuosity.

The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" is one of that group's stranger and seemingly unrecoverable tunes. And for the record, it may be its best. Ballantine and company turn it into a small masterpiece here, with big fat, metallic chords and reverence for the melody, starting in a sedate manner before Ballantine starts ripping, making it a ballsy anthem, the way

Jimi Hendrix

guitar, electric
1942 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimi Hendrix took

Bob Dylan

guitar and vocals
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Dylan's serene "All Along The Watchtower" into the stratosphere in 1968. "Tomorrow Never Knows," also from the Beatles' songbook, is ominous, like a bad moon risin'—the actual astronomical event, not the John Fogarty tune. Ballantine could have made an entire disc of Beatles music, in the manner of Your Mother Should Know:
Brad Mehldau
piano
b.1970
" data-original-title="" title="">Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles (Nonesuch, 2023). He did it for Dylan.

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman's "When Will The Blues Leave" snaps and pops, Ballantine's

Wes Montgomery

guitar
1923 - 1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Wes Montgomery-like, searing single notes burning holes in the stereo speakers.

Rocker Elliot Smith's "Alameda" closes the show with a groove beneath a delicate, pretty melody, as if a semblance of peace has been found, wrapping up an excellent, atmospherically cohesive guitar trio outing.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Storyteller; Runaround; Trinkle, Tinkle; Strawberry Fields Forever; Modern Bohemian; Tomorrow Never Knows; Cigarette Siren; When Will the Blues Leave; Alameda.

Personnel

Charlie Ballantine

guitar

Quinn Sternberg

bass

Dan Weiss

drums

Album information

Title: East by Midwest | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Origin Records

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Charlie Ballantine Trio

Bop Shop Records
Rochester, NY

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