Cedar County Cobras

Sinners & Saints

Overton Music

The Cedar County Cobras are the duo of Tom Spielbauer and April Dirks. Spielbauer is a guitarist playing in a Delta blues style who sometimes adds a foot drum, in the style of iconic blues musicians Elmore James and R.L. Burnside. As a solo artist, Spielbauer is the winner of the 2022 Iowa Blues Challenge and placed as a semi-finalist at the 2023 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. With over twenty years of playing blues and rock ‘n’ roll across the Midwest, his authentic sound comes from a career of pouring concrete and working construction. In 2005, he was diagnosed with advanced macular degeneration and declared legally blind, following in the footsteps of Blind Willie McTell and Canned Heat’s Alan Wilson.

Also an Iowa native, April Dirks started playing mandolin with the Cobras in 2014. She previously performed as a professional bluegrass musician with a unique “gypsy” sound. April soon discovered she had a talent for playing the upright bass, and the duo naturally gravitated to playing roots and Delta blues music. Dirks now plays the doghouse bass that gives the duo the boot-stompin’ sound that makes the music really move.

The album opens with a fiery blues number, written by the duo, that uses combustible imagery as a metaphor for volatile relationships and small-town gossip. With Spielbauer’s guitar and Dirks on bass and mandolin, the duo shares a call-and-response vocal with a Delta swagger. “Matches & Gasoline” is an explosive introduction to the Cobras’ gritty storytelling, as they sing, “She brought the matches, I brought the gasoline. Was the biggest fire anyone around there ever seen. Started burning in Memphis went down to New Orleans. Black smoke rise in the Delta from that Mississippi Queen. Fire’s so bright you can see it all the way from town.”

On “Motorbike,” written by Spielbauer, with Dave Moore on harmonica, Spielbauer chimes, “Got this old motorbile, I ride it into town, It’s getting pretty old, still gets me around. When I ride it on those gravel roads, it gets a little squirrely. Gonna head into town, going to see my girlie. Everyday that she sees me, says she hates hat bike. Well there’s somethings in life, ya know, you just ain’t gonna like, says you got to get a helmet, and a license. It’s just riding a motorbike, ya know, it ain’t rocket science. If I ever make it out of this town alive, I’m gonna fill up the tires on that old ’65. I’m gonna head down the road, I’ll get that wind in my hair, If I never make it back, I just don’t care…I just don’t care.”

On the topical “Bessie Smith’s Last Ride,” with saxophone and backing vocal from Heath Alan and Spielbauer on banjo, the duo once again shares the vocal as they chant, “Put your hands in the air, or you’ll be blown away…that’s what they always say. Since 1937, nothin’s really changed. All the time that’s passed and things are still the same. If you need an ambulance you’ll have to wait and see. If you need a cop car, they can get you one for free. The ‘Empress of the Blues’ crashed her car and lost her life. They came upon the wreck and saw that old Packard car. They didn’t know the woman riding shotgun used to be a STAR. They saw a black man driving, right away they’re thinking. They said it was his fault and accused him of drinking…Eighty years later and times have never changed. Faces may look different, the idea is still the same…any kid could tell you, they know that it is wrong to put your knee on someone’s neck and hold it there that long.”

On the traditional “St. James Infirmary,” with saxophonist Alan, keyboardist Tanner Taylor on Hammond B-3 and piano, and Bryan Vanderpool on upright bass, Spielbauer sings lead while Dirks plays mandolin, as he moans, “Folks, I’m going down to the St. James Infirmary, see my baby there, She stretched out on a long white table, she’s so sweet, so cold, so fair.”

On a second traditional tune, “Get Right Church,” once again Taylor is on the B-3 and piano, with harmony from Monica Faye and Krista Guillaume, as the duo groans, “Get right church and let’s go home. I’m going home on the morning train, yes I am…one of these mornings & it won’t be long, you’ll look for me and I’ll be gone.”

“Mind My Own Business,” written and sung by Spielbauer, with Dirks on bass and Alan on sax, features Spielbauer as he cries, “If it ain’t broke, I ain’t tryin’ to fix it. I’ll shut my mouth, keep my eyes wide open, I’ll mind my own business. Doesn’t need to be said, need to be said right now. Do I need to be the one who’s sayin, anything, anyhow. Careful what you wish for, you might get what you want. Might come to find out later, it wasn’t what you thought…I’m gonna mind my own business.”

On “Guitar Zero,” written by Spielbauer, he is on guitar, with Dirks on bass and mandolin, as he belts, “Everywhere I go these kids all complain, they’ll say that old man he’s got to be insane. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one of those things. What’s he trying to do with all of them strings. They say, hey grandpa, your looking pretty lame, you ought to trade that thing in on a Guitar Hero game. Cuz, what you’re gots an inferior machine. No you don’t need no amplifier when you got a TV screen. There’s about 200 songs to choose from. I looked them all over, thought they were all just dumb. Mother Maybelle Carter, she wasn’t on the list, I saw that and said, ah the hell with this.”

“Ruby Red,” written by Lonnie Bowden and mandolinist Dirks, with Vanderpool on bass and Spielbauer on foot drum, features the duo as they burst, “Walking down the street last night looking for Ruby Red. Hoping I can find her and hoping she’s not dead. Oh, she was the girl for me, was so fair and fine. I went off to fight a war she’s the girl I left begind. Oh, Ruby Red, where are you tonight, I didn’t want to leave you, no I didn’t want to fight. Hair as red as the setting sun, her eyes the prettiest blue. Used to play the fiddle and she used to sing some too. We played and sang together, our songs came from the heart. War came to our world and tore our world apart…oh, Ruby Red, where are you tonight.”

“Springtime” is an instrumental written by Spielbauer, featuring Dirks on bass and mandolin. On the closer, “Precious Lord,” written by Thomas A. Dorsey in 1932, with a new arrangement from Spielbauer, Dirks on bass, Taylor on B-3 and piano, and backing vocalists Faye and Guillaume, Spielbauer croons, “Precious lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand. I’m tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious lord, lead me home.”

The duo built its sound the old-fashioned way, through countless nights in taverns, wineries, theaters, festivals, and roadside joints, with little more than guitars, an upright bass, and a boot-stomping foot drum. The refreshingly authentic Cedar County Cobras draw heavily from Delta blues, early country, folk traditions, and rural Americana. You’ll agree the Cedar County Cobras write songs that sound as though they’ve been living in the American songbook for generations. This is highly recommended listening.

Richard Ludmerer

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