South Philly Review

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“Tink says we are country prison music and early British Invasion. Hillbilly-ish, as well,” Joziah Longo said while taking a break from rehearsals last week. The music veteran from Second and Wolf streets is gearing up for his debut at the Theater of Living Arts, 334 South St., with his band, Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, which includes cello, accordion and flute player Tink Lloyd, guitarist/mandolin player Sharkey McEwen, percussionist Tony Zuzulo and Chen and Orien Longo.

The New York-based band is not new on the music scene, having played together since the 1990s, but the April 16 Philadelphia performance is something never-before-done by the self-proclaimed “industry-avoiders.”

“When [Live Nation] asked if we would do the TLA venue, we thought we’d make it an event. Let’s just reveal the stuff we are working on in this album,” Longo said of the band’s intention to play the works-in-progress to be released on their new album, “The Grand Slambovians,” dropping summer 2010. “You always want to make a show special, so that’s what we are doing.”

Coming together as a band in the late-90s, the group skirted playing in cities, preferring to do things its own way by self-producing quirky performances just about anywhere.

“We did it in very obscure places. We’ve done it all over the place, in very obscure old theaters, and managed to have it be a sellout gig,” Longo said of the Circus’ shows that also have been staged in the middle of Pennsylvania’s woods and occasionally featured aerial performances. “We did bring it in to the city and that went really well.”

The Slambovians are back in the cities, as its lead singer/songwriter put it, and enjoying the new vibe. Though they travel to Philly at least once a year for the New Year’s Eve-Eve event — played at World Café Live the day before NYE as a nod to the Mummers, who are prepping for the New Year’s Day parade and could not attend a New Year’s Eve show — the TLA performance is out-of-the-box even for them.

“The last show I saw [at the TLA] was Arcade Fire,” Longo said of a performance he caught a couple years back. “It’s intimate enough, it’s a nice-size venue. That was a cool show.

“Philly will kick your ass if they don’t like it. They are honest. They are discerning. So we thought, ‘Let’s just do the whole shebang.’”

Coming back to his old stomping grounds is a treat for the local boy who left the area at age 17 to pursue a career in music.

“It’s funny for me in Philly ’cause people show up that I grew up with — you remember these people. It’s kind of a gaffe to play for these people that you think you are playing for some kid that went to high school with you,” Longo said.

The Slambovian Circus normally shies away from the press, as it does with most mainstream or typical approaches to a music career. However, the formula has proved successful and, true to form, next week’s performance was the result of going against the grain.

“We usually play our hands close to our vests,” Longo said. “[Playing new material] seems like not the thing to do, so we are trying it out.”

Every Friday Night at the Longo’s Pennsport home was a basement party hosted by Longo’s father and grandfather.

“They played guitar and they sang. They would play clubs and bars on the weekends, both were factory workers from South Philly,” Longo said of his same-named paternal line. “It was a party every Friday, all my aunts and uncles came over and it was tradition.”

As he absorbed the rhythms and notes his family strummed, an innate musical sensibility was activated.

“My dad taught me when I was really small, even when I was too small to play I would sit in the basement and strum. From the beginning they would try and teach me guitar,” Longo said, adding with a laugh, “They bought me a guitar and hung it over my crib.”

After grade school at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 2319 S. Third St., Longo became a student at Bishop Neumann High School, formerly at 26th and Moore streets, but the strict Catholic conventions didn’t mesh with his music bent.

“I was 16 when I moved out of my family home. I went to Pine and Quince streets. It was a musician area. Daryl Hall and John Oates were around there, and I played music with those guys,” Longo said.