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Daddy is doing double duty
Band books performances in two cities in three hoursBy Walter Tunis Contributing Music Writer
THE WEEK THAT WAS
X at The Dame: "If you have to go to work in the morning, be proud," said John Doe near the halfway point of this spirited but uneven performance. "Be proud you got out, got drunk and had a punk rock experience." On those terms, this return outing by the veteran Los Angeles band delivered the goods just by letting loose tunes from its first five albums. It was punk by definition — especially in the coarse harmonies created by Doe and fellow vocalist (and former wife) Exene Cervenka — but today's X is a friendlier animal. Guitarist Billy Zoom offered razor-sharp hooks (including an effortlessly energetic riff that ignited White Girl), Doe was a cordial host who let his electric bass rip during the heavily punctuated intro to The Hungry Wolf, and drummer D.J. Bonebrake hammered out Chuck Berry-style rolls during The World's a Mess, It's in My Kiss. Cervenka unleashed the requisite howls for Your Phone Is Off the Hook But You're Not and delivered a fetchingly ragged acoustic duet version of I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts with Doe as an encore. Otherwise, the singer — who announced two weeks ago that she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis — seemed detached and unenthused. Sure, there was still considerable fun to be found in a performance like this. It was also cool to hear Doe deflate the nostalgia aspect of X's music during between-song chats. But seeing as Cervenka was as uninvolved as she was unheard, this X outing rated a C.
Goose Creek Symphony at The Dame: Goose Creek's debut at the new Dame differed little from the band's annual stops at the old demolished Dame. The crowd turnout was still plentiful, the ensemble jams still danced a line between retro folk-rock and jazzy country mischief, and frontman Charlie Gearheart, who turns 70 next month, still guided the Goose with tireless ease. Of course, the fact The Dame's air conditioning was busted recalled another aspect of the old Dame that was best left alone. Audience members griped plenty about the furnace-like temps inside the club. But they were no less reserved in celebrating Goose Creek's rural country grooves than the band was in re-creating them. Vintage fare like the title song to 1972's Words of Earnest album allowed Gearheart and the band's only other co-founding member, guitarist Bob "Willard" Henke, to harmonize over a homey hoedown melody. The comparatively newer title tune to 2003's I Don't Know emphasized a fusion sound built around the electric exchanges of guitar and violin that had less in common with American folk than it did with the more adventurous early '70s British folk-rock of Fairport Convention. Gearheart joked at one point that the oppressive heat enveloping The Dame was "getting us ready for hell." But the evening didn't echo that sentiment. It might have been a hot time in the ol' Dame that night, but the music was all cool, clear sailing.
Daddy
■ 5 p.m. June 27 at Francisco's Farm Arts Festival at Midway College, Midway. $5. (859) 846-4049. www.franciscosfarm.org.
■ 8 p.m. June 27 at The Brick Alley, 25 St. Clair St., Frankfort. $10. (502) 875-2559. www.myspace.com/thebrickalley.
The question this weekend isn't so much "Who's your daddy?" but rather "Who's this Daddy?"
Daddy, as it pertains to a pair of regional performances Saturday, is the name of a resourceful Americana outfit fronted by Will Kimbrough and Sturgis native Tommy Womack. Both have been regulars at Lexington clubs, from Kimbrough's rocking dates at The Dame during the past four years to Womack's days in and out of Government Cheese that go back decades to downtown shows at the long-defunct Wrocklage.
Daddy, though, is a different beast. It's a looser, earthier ensemble with strong elements of twang, soul and gospel cool. There also is a healthy roster of inspirations figuring into the band's new album, For a Second Time.
Nobody From Nowhere, for instance, is a moody everyman rocker that recalls the narratives of Steve Earle and Chris Knight, while Wash and Fold cooks up a groove fueled by vintage Little Feat-style slide guitar and a crisp Bo Diddley beat. The killer, though, is Hardshell Case, which grooves with a slow, determined Southern glow and a guitar hook that sounds like Creedence Clearwater Revival. Keyboards then pepper the tune with a spiritual air that almost takes the music to church.
Kimbrough and Womack will perform as an acoustic duo at the Francisco's Farm Arts Festival at Midway College on Saturday afternoon, and then the full band (rounded out by keyboardist John Deaderick, bassist Dave Jacques and drummer Paul Griffith) heads to The Brick Alley in Frankfort that evening.
Steve Earle and Joe Pug
8 p.m. June 27 at Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Cincinnati. $25, $30, $35, $40. (513) 744-3551. Ticketweb, www.ticketweb.com.
Near the close of his performance here last summer at The Kentucky Theatre — a mind-bending acoustic concert that boasted harmonies from wife Allison Moorer, turntable beats from DJ Neil MacDonald and tunes from the New York-savvy album Washington Square Serenade — Steve Earle told the crowd he already had mapped out plans for his next recording, a tribute to the iconic Texas songsmith Townes Van Zandt.
Ten months later we had Townes, an artful and refreshingly unrefined album of 15 Van Zandt tunes both established (Poncho and Lefty, White Freightliner Blues) and obscure (Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold, Marie), all of which mixed beauty with a bittersweet sense of displacement.
A healthy all-star guest list including Moorer, son Justin Townes Earle (take a wild guess as to whom he is named for), Tim O'Brien, Tom Morello and others helped create the album's soulfully scrappy sound. But hard-core fans of the self-described "hard-core troubadour" know that it's worth the few extra bucks to pick up the two-disc version of Townes. Its second disc consists of 11 Van Zandt gems played demo-style by Earle without accompaniment.
That is also how Earle will perform them — along with music from throughout his own extensive career — on Saturday at Cincinnati's Memorial Hall.
The more ruminative, Dylan-savvy folk of Chicago's Joe Pug will open the evening.
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