Twangfest - June 6-9, 2012 in St. Louis

Kasey Anderson and the Honkies

Chris Bay — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:16:11 +0000

Hot on the trail of great Americana songwriters like Steve Earle, Patterson Hood and Chris Knight, Kasey Anderson is an impressive lyricist and an even more impressive band leader. Backed by the fiery country rock of the Honkies, the Portland-based singer tells stories of hard living, hard leavings and the hardcore bars where secrets are always kept and the truth always manages to slip through. It’s no wonder Paste magazine recently called him a “workingman’s poet.” With a distinctively small-town Southern edge to his voice and images, Anderson can evoke a whole rugged, emotional landscape in a single line or a single melody. – Roy Kasten

Rough Shop

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:00:04 +0000

Rough Shop is a treasure of the St. Louis music scene. The most seasoned of veterans, the members of Rough Shop combine decades of collective performing experience (as members of One Fell Swoop, Nadine, Hazeldine and others) with a deep knowledge of and respect for truly great rock, pop, folk, country and soul. On stage and on record, those influences and that experience come pouring out. Their sound has a well-crafted and well-worn feel, the aural equivalent of an old family quilt, handed down through the generations. It’s a sound that each member contributes to equally and masterfully. At the front are John Wendland and Andy Ploof on guitar and sharing songwriting duties. Each contributes uniquely introspective and personal lyrics, colored by vivid recollections and unmistakably honest sentiments. The rhythm section of Anne Tkach on bass and Spencer Marquart on drums is as solid as they come, effortlessly shifting shapes as the compositions move from country swing to slinky soul to shuffling blues. With their new release, “Beneath the South Side Bridge,” the band’s fourth, Rough Shop has once again shown that the respect and admiration bestowed upon them by critics, fans and fellow musicians is more than deserved. – Chris Bay

Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:57:04 +0000

God may not have made honky tonk angels, but if he did, he would have broken the mold after Zoe Muth. Along with her band of cagey veterans, the Lost High Rollers, Muth has become one of the finest singers and songwriters on the Seattle alt-country and Americana scene. She has that ineffable twangy catch in her voice and a deceptively agile way with phrasing deceptively simple songs of love, lust, betrayal, life on the road and dreaming dreams as big as the Northwest sky. With gleaming Telecaster and mandolin, the Lost High Rollers draw audiences in with Tex-Mex grooves, midnight country waltzes and straight-up honky tonk shuffles, but it’s Muth’s songwriting and voice that keep them coming back for more. – Roy Kasten

Kevin Gordon

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:52:21 +0000

After years of releasing some of the finest pure songwriting and finest impure rock ‘n’ roll found on any album coming out of Music City, Kevin Gordon is finally getting his due. This year, Gordon released his fifth album, “Gloryland,” a masterful collection of hard blues, rockabilly and Americana. The Rolling Stone called him a “juke-joint professor emeritus” and Lucinda Williams herself opined in the New York Times: “He’s writing songs that are like short stories, and I really like the kind of swampy, bluesy sound.” It’s hard to top that, but words alone can’t capture what it’s like to see Gordon, backed by a full band, on stage, playing and singing like he’s making his last stand. Gordon’s been doing just that for nearly 20 years, and Twangfest is proud to welcome him back for his third appearance at the festival. – Roy Kasten

John Doe

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:47:05 +0000

In Los Angeles, the late ’70s and ’80s was a fertile time for music. Inspired pairings were more the norm instead of the exception, and for that reason you could see Dwight Yoakam with Los Lobos one night, X with the James Harman band another night, the Plimsouls with the Blasters the next night, and Lone Justice with X on still another night. If Gun Club was opening one night they would be headlining the next. Surf, rockabilly, punk, pop, country, rock and blues all wrapped around each other for concert bills that stretched the boundaries of the band members as well as the audiences.

Out of all this, some voices stood out above the others: Phil Alvin, David Hidalgo, Maria McKee, Johnette Napolitano and Dwight Yoakam immediately come to mind. And John Doe. As one of the front-persons of X, John Doe’s deep baritone voice stood out above the maelstrom of audience turbulence unfolding offstage and one always got the sense that voice would bring to life a whole lot of songs for years to come – and not just punk songs, either.

Flash forward to 2012 and you will find a voice that has not diminished and, in fact, has grown richer over time. Angry, resigned, inspired, funny, reverent of great artists before him — all this and more come across through the songwriting and voice of John Doe. “As real as the day is long” as another one-time Angelino once said. Doe is appearing at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room and closing out Twangfest on Saturday, June 9. Miss him at your own peril. – John Wendland

Langhorne Slim

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:41:19 +0000

The eccentric, Pennsylvania-born, Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter and band leader Langhorne Slim first made his presence known in 1999 with the modestly released “Slim Pickens.” Since then he’s gone and cut five full-length records, each soaked in rockabilly twang and Bohemian punk-rock soul. Backed by the War Eagles, Slim always kicks up a sweaty ruckus on stage, but it’s a ruckus with a purpose. He barely pauses to take a breath between songs of finding love in the streets, tasting freedom in a shared bottle of wine and discovering where the rebel side of heaven really is: in a good rock ‘n’ roll song, always sung from the heart. – Roy Kasten

Ha Ha Tonka

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:33:59 +0000

When you listen to Ha Ha Tonka’s music, what you’re hearing is the future of Americana. In a genre in which it’s easier to look back than to look forward, the southwest Missouri band bucks the stereotypes by being both hyper-literate and sonically progressive. In the same tradition as fellow Missourian Mark Twain — who the band makes explicit nod to in “The Humorist” — Ha Ha Tonka uses its craft to extract the essential elements of the Midwestern ethos: honesty, hard work and humanity. When these ideals are delivered on stage in four-part harmony, with boot heels and guitar picks hammering away at floorboards and strings, the songs become a celebration of everything we love about music and life. – Chris Bay

Pretty Little Empire

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:29:06 +0000

The scruffy pop of St. Louis’ Pretty Little Empire comes in many flavors: shuffling kiss offs, slow burning resignations, salty-sweet ballads and four-on-the-floor triumphs. The common ingredients are seamless harmonies, a four-part attack to every tune and lead singer Justin Johnson’s punchy, memorable lyrics. On stage, the band’s members swap instruments freely and play each song with rare intensity and intimacy. In 2011, the Riverfront Times named Johnson the Best Songwriter and Pretty Little Empire the Best Americana (Rock) Band in St. Louis, noting, “Not enough can be said for a band that plays like everyone in it is going to die tomorrow.” – Chris Bay

Deano & the Purvs

Chris Bay — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:24:27 +0000

Deano & the Purvs combines three members each of two bands who have played at previous Twangfests. Dean Schlabowske (guitar/vocals), Joe Camarillo (drums) and Alan Doughty (bass) of the Waco Brothers join forces with Bill Anderson (acoustic guitar), Pete Stiles (mandolin) and Jo Walston (vocals) of the Meat Purveyors. What we’ll witness will be a raucous collision as these two bands (from Chicago and Austin, respectively) meet in the middle, literally and figuratively.

Their collective sound is not so much a unified blend as it is a tangy and twangy oil-and-vinegar clash. Dean’s electric guitar splashes up against the clean and perky acoustic picking of Bill and Pete while Jo provides sultry backing to Dean’s jaunty vocals — quite the contrast to the way she belts it out when front and center in the Meat Purveyors. But not to worry — Jo also gets her turn on lead vocals, guaranteed to hit that sassy, bluegrass spot we all witnessed in the Purveyors’ handful of infamous appearances at Frederick’s Music Lounge (RIP). Expect to hear originals from the catalogs of both bands (dysfunctional relationships seem to be a unifying thread), as well as a few well-chosen and well-executed covers. – Rick Wood

Wussy

Chris Bay — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:45:01 +0000

When the oceans rise, the markets crash and the government dissolves into upheaval, Wussy will still be here. At least we should hope for as much. When everything else we’ve come to depend on falls apart, we’re going to need a reminder of who we are and how to live, and what really matters in this confusing mess we call life. Led by hellfire Telecaster and the shared lead vocals of Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker — who sing like Adam and Eve after the fall — Wussy’s songs consist of rapid-fire still frames representing all that’s beautiful and ugly, honest and deceitful, dead and alive. Beloved by critics but relatively unnoticed by everyone else — save a cadre of passionate fans — Wussy continues to make records and deliver concerts that remind us why rock is vital. — Chris Bay