Reptile Palace Orchestra Rocks!

And folks, funks, jazzes, and klezmers. This eclectic band added a jolt of exuberance to the SEJ conference’s Saturday night party at the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center. When lead singer Anna Purnell described one of their numbers as a combination of bluegrass and klezmer, with a little bit of blues, I thought that this was surely a unique blend of musical styles, but apparently Reptile Palace Orchestra is not the only band playing this, as I found out serendipitously on Monday morning when I read this article.

 

 

(Photo from band’s Web site)

Be warned, though, that the music that accompanies that article is much more bluegrass-y and much less funky than what we heard at the Leopold Center. The band’s own Web site describes their style as Balkan rock or Balkan funk. You can find the Web site here. It includes music and video clips.