>From the Boston Globe, 2/19/99 Leonard's 'Cool' collaboration with Coyotes By Joan Anderman, Globe Correspondent, 02/19/99 Fact and fiction have rarely merged in quite such a strange and supple way as when crime novelist Elmore Leonard and Greenfield, Mass., rock band the Stone Coyotes discovered each other in a small Los Angeles nightclub. It was 1997, and Leonard was searching for a muse. He was plotting the sequel to his 1990 book (and subsequent film) ''Get Shorty,'' about loan-shark-turned-Hollywood-producer Chili Palmer. Leonard had decided that in the new novel Palmer would be the manager of a band, one with a female lead singer, but beyond that, the 73-year-old writer hadn't a clue. ''I was listening to Sinatra, and jazz. I had a lot to learn about rock 'n' roll. I listened to Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple. I liked Gwen Stefani from that band No Doubt. I heard a lot of female singers. You know there's a big pile of them out there now,'' Leonard says on the phone from his home in suburban Detroit. Although he confesses he had no idea what he was looking for, none of the well-known women in rock struck Leonard as the model he was hoping to find. Then one late-summer night, on the advice of an industry acquaintance, Leonard went to the famed Troubadour on the Sunset Strip to hear the Stone Coyotes. ''Right away I thought, `Yeah, that's the music I want.' There was a story to the songs, and it had sort of a country thing to it,'' says Leonard. ''I liked the fact that the drummer uses marching sticks and a weird little set, and that his son plays bass on a barstool. Someone said the band is like AC/DC meets Patsy Cline. And I thought Chili could understand it.'' Author and rock band began their unusual collaboration that night, and over the next several months Leonard concocted the fictional Texas band Odessa based on the Stone Coyotes' look, their struggles in the business, and the band's stripped-down, rock 'n' twang sound [poster's note: There's yer twang content]. He commissioned songs from the band to use in the book, songs that also appear on the Stone Coyotes' new CD, ''The Church of the Falling Rain.'' In a truly novel configuration of frontman and backup band, Leonard and the Stone Coyotes are now on tour together; he reads, they play. So far they've hit hot spots like LA's Viper Room and the Mercury Lounge in New York. Tonight, Leonard and the Stone Coyotes will appear at the Lansdowne Street Music Hall. The collaboration marks something of a career boost for the Stone Coyotes, an all-in-the-family rock band composed of singer/songwriter/guitarist Barbara Keith; her husband, Doug Tibbles, on drums; and Doug's son from a previous marriage, bassist John Tibbles. They've spent the past 10 years writing, practicing, and making home recordings in the basement of their house in Greenfield, near where Keith grew up. But the small-town garage band image is deceptive. Before they escaped Los Angeles for the quiet comforts of Western Massachussetts, Doug Tibbles was a successful writer of TV scripts, and Keith, who came up in the Greenwich Village folk scene, wrote songs recorded by Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton-John, and Tanya Tucker. She had also signed a three-record deal with Warner Bros., but walked away from it - returning the advance money - after concluding that she was moving in the wrong musical direction. She went underground, and resurfaced a few years later with a screaming electric guitar. Leonard was so taken by Keith's declaration of independence, he included it in his new book, ''Be Cool.'' ''I think he was looking for a certain power. He definitely liked the idea of staying true to your school, and musically sticking to your guns,'' Keith says on the phone from Greenfield. In a business where artists are more often compensated for selling out rather than pursuing a vision, the Stone Coyotes are an exception to the rule - and at an unlikely time of life: Doug and Barbara are both in their 50s. ''If we had really thought about it, we never would have predicted this,'' says Keith. ''We didn't have a master plan or a career strategy. We thought if we just kept improving, getting the groove down ... It's so much fun to play a song, and play it well, that's almost satisfaction enough. But you want security, too. We just weren't sure if it would come from the music business.'' Suddenly catapulted into the spotlight via the back door, other doors are opening as fast as you can say ''major-label interest.'' ''I don't know exactly what it means yet,'' Keith says. ''It's not like some A&R guy was sitting in the audience and liked us. We don't sound exactly like something else. And we're not easily swept into any new trend. But there is a stir. I think this is a really unique chance to get up and show what we can do,'' Barbara says. ''The Church of the Falling Rain'' is now available only at the band's Web site, www.thestonecoytes.com, which Leonard - a loyal fan, to say the least - included in ''Be Cool.'' Since the book was released on Feb. 9, the site has gotten at least 50 hits a day. They're still ''keeping the wolves from the door in a patchwork way,'' says Barbara, referring to a small antiques business and occasional royalty checks. But while the Tibbles-Keith family anticipates spending more time on the left coast in coming months, a move back to LA is not in its game plan. ''This will always be home,'' Keith states unequivocally. ''I remind Doug and John when they're chipping ice off the windows that Emily Dickinson found her creativity in this.'' And as to feeling like the whole experience is a bit like a scene from a novel? ''Well, there is a surreal quality to it, in the sense of something so unique happening.'' says Keith. ''But then again, we know perfectly well what we are.'' This story ran on page D03 of the Boston Globe on 02/19/99.
