Barn Dance Review - February 1999

From: tejas (tbsamsel@richmond.infi.net)

Capital City Barn Dance
Dog Town Lounge
Feb 27, 1999

Elena Skye & the Demolition String Band from the Jersey burg of Hoboken kicked off February's Capitol City Barn Dance with a distaff version of Jimmy Rogers' MULE SKINNER BLUES. Elena reminds me of what the young Janis Joplin sounded like back during the folk scare days of the early '60s and has a kick 'em in the head honkytonk stage presence, even while wearing what appeared to be a Cat-In-Hat type chapeau (or was it a Roosian shapka?). She'd even been able to roust out a writer from the Times-Disgrace (the same one who seemed to think that Cracker and Joan Osborne were the only folks playing at the Barn Dance in April) to cover this show. I'm sure her dynamic delivery will be noted. Nonetheless, her band (including an impressive minimalist drummer who used only a snare) rocked and writhed. They got down to serious bidness with a superbly miked gut bass (you could actually hear wood all around the club) and a Telecaster wizard who would change to a baritone guitar on some songs as he saw fit. The Ghost Rockets' lead guitar sitting in on mandolin on at least one song. The high point of the show for me was her version of a Mendoza Sisters tune from the 30's Texas Rio Grande Valley that makes grown men weep. I had no idea this was going to be on the menu and was elated by running across another band with extremely good taste. And they managed to sell all of their CDs, as well. Good for them

Honky Tonk Confidential played the Barn Dance about a year ago and it was good to see these folks do another one of their fine traditional honkytonk sets. The bass player, my pal Geff King, had been trying to get me to barbeque for all the bands that evening before the show. I declined, for it would have made my surly teenaged chirren even surlier. Maybe next time and in the summer. But the good thing about the Dogtown is that it's close enough to my home to have someone take me home in a wheelbarrow, if I bring my own wheelbarrow. The best of all possible worlds, no? With three lead singers who can write songs and a master of the double neck pedal steel, HTC can cover most of the honkytonk bases. They did some Johnny Cash, some Buck Owens (A-11, an early Johnny Paycheck tune), some Jim Ed Brown (POP A TOP AGAIN), some of Earnest Tubb and the lovely and talented Diana Quinn did Wanda Jackson's FUJIYAMA MAMA. They were even better than the last time I saw them and they even had a few new originals on tap. The Dogtown Lounge seems to be a much more amenable place to hear music devoted to two-steppin', beer-drankin' and lost love fraught with maudlin country-fried themes than Alley Katz.

The Ghost Rockets closed out the evening, giving the audience another dose of honkytonk disease. They were cruising near the Bakersfield city limits and with their pedal man on a 12-stringed steel, went into a Buck Owens-inspired overdrive. These are some slick dudes. The front man looked like he'd be a hell of a poker player and they even had the Canadian content issue settled, having a resident canuck who could pass for Lyle Lovett's other brother Darryl. A bit later, the lead guitar picker hauled out his banjar and settled into a round of bluegrass with their buddy, Elena Skye, joining in on vocals and mandolin. One of their originals was particularly clever, SHE JUST GOT CALLER-ID, which was an extremely funny, yet painfully true situation from this day and age. Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit SHOTGUN BOOGIE ended the show with a bang, Another thing, these bands are all class acts in the tradition of real country. You could tell this at the beginning of each act for they had an instrumental that kicked off the music in a polished style. None of this neo-slacker lameness here. Nossir.