Barn Dance Review - November 1998

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

November CCBD Alley Katz Nov 14, 1998
It was great to hear old homegirl Rebbie Sharp's UNCOMFORTABLE HUNK OF METAL String Band again with their dance/trance inducing mountain music. She led off with a few solo fiddle pieces and eventually with her banjar picker and finally a fellow who doubled on guitar and fiddle. Don't know if this was planned for, but it seemed that the guitar picker was able to utilize the feed back threshold of the PA to make it sound like there was another set of strings in the mix. I was quite impressed. Another high point of their set was a rather rowdy version of BREAKING UP CHRISTMAS.

Dirtball's old warhorse was trotted out as the house band this time and they entertained us with their usual mix of originals and Gram Parsons' weepers. They also did a fine job on that Tex-Czech anthem, THE SHINER SONG, the words of which call for the building of a New Prague in Texas, where the fountains in the Park will spout beer. A noble aspiration in my book!

The Blind Pharoahs got the joint jumping with their blues-derived rockabilly starting out with the Carl Perkins' classic, DIXIE FRIED. They made a few jokes about having a Yankee in the group (or was it having a proctologist in the group?). I assume was the harp player. Then they lit into some Howlin' Wolf (ahwooo!) chunes with a vengance, breaking a few strings whilst going down that red dirt road. The Pharaohs closed out their set with a rockin' cover of WALKIN' THE DOG and the dancers knew how to do it.

The Deliberate Strangers, from Pittsburgh, showed promise with songs that told of truckstop queens (SHE'S MY) HAMBURGER PATTY and eschatology of the snake handlin' and foot-washin' kind. They were quite good, but a bit subdued, with a four-person lineup of women on bass and fiddle and men on guitar and drums. Unfortunately there were some technical problems with the stage monitors and they spent a bit of time in calibration. I left early, however, missing the remainder of their set since my back was not in the best of shape after a day of cleaning gutters and winterizing. Geezerhood is well upon some of us, you know.

TBSamsel@richmond.infi.net (also tejas@infi.net)
'Do the boogie woogie in the South American way'
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