Barn Dance Review - November 1997

There was a whiff of change in the air at the eighth CAPITAL CITY BARN DANCE with the new emcee, WCVE’s Steve Clark taking the helm, assisted by the ever charming Tammy Bouquet (or is it Bucket), the currently reigning Turnip Green Queen. CCBD#8 got off to a rousing start with MERCURY DIME from Chapel Hill, NC. These fellers split the difference between the early Allmans and The Band, with a presentation slicker’n greased owl pockey in August. Very impressive, they were.

But then there appeared a band out of Mechanicsville, BOBBY FLEET and the PROPS of FAITH that had a banjo picker with one of those hi-tech electric Deering (with the faux cutaway horns) banjars who was playing it through a phase shifter. He'd go from really fast 3-finger pickery with quite a straight banjo sound to a sweet, Les Paulish jazz styling. The singer (on Telly) went off into a fearsome Holy Roller rant fueled by foncky swamp boogie a la Jerry Reed that he later claimed could continue for at least 45 minutes (the rant that is…), plus tunes by the Doors and The Band's KING HARVEST as well as a real zippy version of San Antonio Rose... these cats are originally from LonGuyLand and went to HS together and found that they were all living in Richmond several years ago.

TRAILER BRIDE, also from Chapel Hill, fronted by a gal who plays slide Telly (covered with blue/grey diffraction grating finish) and blows harp on a neck-rack. They were country, too, but coming from a skewed angle; reminded me of an old Austin hippie fiddle band called Shiva's Head Band in a way. No wonder, for I found later that they are all compadres of the currently bi-coastal sometime Richmond resident, Michael Hurley. These folks got the cloggers and flatfooters up and at 'em with a vengance.

Between sets, there was a good deal of snappy patter and innuendo (and out the other) between Mr. Clark and the Turnip Green Queen; also, a whole new musical organization has been put together as the house-of-continuity band. I am referring to none other than THE CAPITAL CITY BOYS, a consortium of old-timers in the local scene who provide a welcome respite from those of us who were fearing an intermission of flaming jugglers and those-who-make-animals-from-balloons. The high point of the whole evening may have been when Michael Hurley joined Wes Freed and Coby Batty on a couple of songs. Or was it when the “amazing” musical sawyerette from TRAILER BRIDE joined in on the crosscut? I couldn’t tell.

Prior to the show, Steve “Mr. Country Music” Giles spun some top notch country sides to set the tone more appropriately way than the dance mix that is usually on the Flood Zone’s system. He’s a refugee from the recent reformatting of WXGI to (shudder) country gold. His former co-DJ, “Uncle” Wylie Southworth was there, too and they were really quite enthusiastic about a letter to the editor that got published in STYLE WEEKLY regarding their situation. Someone out there cares, I reckon.

Copyright 1997. Ted B. Samsel

TBSamsel@richmond.infi.net (also tejas@infi.net)
'Do the boogie woogie in the South American way'
Hank Snow THE RHUMBA BOOGIE