Stuart says that the character exhibited by line dancers is
>pale pale pale (in the polyvalent sense) compared to a bunch a
>lit up oldsters doin a polka. No matter how advanced they
>become, the mechanisms still remind of something more appropriate
>for half-time at the big game vs. State U.
Having seen both, and a lot more dancing of one type or another, I can't say
that I agree with that.
I went over to Coyote's tonight to see Sara Evans. The place is huge - 3
bars on the main floor, a dance floor big enough to hold 150 or so line
dancers, and a balcony around 3 sides with tables, and 2 more bars upstairs.
It was reasonably well filled, maybe 500-600 people - and to my immeasurable
surprise, they looked like pretty much normal people. A few hats, but about
as many feed caps. About 50-50 male/female, and I would say, though I'm
notoriously bad at estimating ages, that it was mostly 25-35, with some
older folks sprinkled around (hmm, how much does that differ from P2? I
hope Stacey posts the results from the survey soon, hint hint). Jeans,
mostly. Not a whole lot of dressing up, though a few folks were pretty
duded out. A lot of smoking and drinking (duh). Not a very rich crowd,
judging by the cars in the parking lot and the clothes folks wore; I saw a
lot of Wal-mart and K-mart type shirts and shoes.
The opening act was a 5-piece - girl singer, guitar/vocal, bass/vocal,
keyboard/vocal and drums. Kodie Montana is the name - not of the girl, but
of the band, though it took me a while to get that straight. They did an
hour's worth of covers, mostly of mainstream country radio stuff: "When Love
Starts Talking," a Trisha Yearwood song about "perfect love," a Michael
Peterson number, "There's Your Trouble" (with a decent banjo patch on the
keyboard), Jo Dee Messina's "Bye Bye Baby" (probably their best number; they
had the arrangement down cold). For his turn in the spotlight, the keyboard
player sang Bill Monroe's (via the Kentucky Headhunters) "Walk Softly On
This Heart Of Mine." They veered between competence and something less; the
bass player had trouble with the battery in his wireless unit (serves him
right). Not very twangy, I'm afraid.
Evans was another story. She came on with "Shame About That" from her first
album, and delivered a 75 minute set that was solid as a rock and plenty
country. From her albums she did:
from Three Chords And The Truth:
"Shame About That" (Evans co-write)
"Three Chords And The Truth" (Evans co-write)
"If You Ever Want My Lovin'" (Evans/Melba Montgomery co-write)
"Imagine That" (Justin Tubb)
"I've Got A Tiger By The Tail"
"I Don't Wann
and
"Walk Out Backwards" (Bill Anderson)
from No Place That Far:
"Cryin' Game"
"No Place That Far" (Evans co-write)
"I Thought I'd See Your Face Again"
"Fool, I'm A Woman" (Evans/Matraca Berg co-write)
"Time Won't Tell" (Beth Nielsen Chapman/Harlan Howard)
"The Knot Comes Untied"
"These Days" (Evans co-write)
"Cupid" (Kostas co-wrote, George Jones sings harmony on the record)
There was also a section in the middle where she did a set of covers, which
she introduced by saying that she grew up playing in a family bluegrass
band, but that she liked a lot of different kinds of music. These were 1) a
country classic I'm blanking on at the moment, 2) "Right Time Of The Night"
(uh, Jennifer Warnes? a great song) and 3) some r&bish song I only vaguely
recognized. She also did another fairly lengthy r&b type number about an
hour into the show, mainly as a vehicle to introduce the band (she sang a
couple of verses, then they broke it down to the drums, intro'd the drummer,
added the bass, intro'd the bass player, you know the routine). Encore was
"I Can't Stop Loving You," introduced as an Elvis number (!), and done in
what I presume was Elvis' arrangement, with a 6/8 r&b feel.
Evans was carrying a seven piece band: bass, drums, guitar *plus* keyboards
*plus* fiddle *plus* pedal steel *plus* a backup singer (Evans' sister
Ashley). If being on a major label has anything to do with that - and I
suspect it does - then that would be a noticeable advantage right there,
that and the big green Silver Eagle out back <g>.
Anyhow, aside from a few glitches here and there, like the drummer's
premature ending lick when the band went into the "Tiger" outro, the band
was tight. Evans herself was great, in good voice, looking relaxed; she
was, in fact, almost chatty. She ID'd most of the songwriters in her
introductions, lectured <g> a bit on the virtues of traditional country
music, and intro'd "Time Won't Tell" with a long spiel about how her company
had felt that her first record was too traditional, and how she had worked
hard to find material that could get airplay on mainstream country radio
while still being "good country music." She got cheers at the mention of
Buck Owens, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Garth and Trisha (who she said had a
hold on "Time Won't Tell" until she persuaded Howard to give it to her), and
a few scattered ones for Pete Anderson.
About this line-dancing thing.... There were a few line-dancers active on a
couple of songs in Kodie Montana's set, but there was probably more
buckle-polishing on the slow numbers. In between sets, while the stage was
being reset, the DJ had the dance cuts rolling one right after another, and
there were, depending on the number, anywhere from 30-70 line-dancers on the
floor. I only recall a couple of the cuts - a dance mix of Tracy Byrd's
"Watermelon Crawl" was one, and one called "Swamp Thing" (I asked) that
appeared to my ear to feature a huge dose of modal clawhammer banjer.
Nothing nazified about the dancing that I could see. The ratio of women to
men line dancing was somewhere in the 3 or 4 to 1 area. Lots of different
degrees of expertise; the most accomplished folks were mostly in couples, it
looked like to me. If anything, I'd say the dancers were maybe a bit older
as a whole than the crowd as a whole.
Now, I suppose that someone who enjoyed some other style of dancing might
find the line-dancing offensive or threatening in some way. Myself, I don't
dance much and never have. I've had plenty of experience watching people
from on-stage, though, and for me, the main distinction is dancing vs.
non-dancing, not in the kind of dancing. If you're in a place that's set up
for dancing, you want to see people dancing; if not, not.
I just don't get what the big deal is. I see that recent posts on the
subject have zeroed in on people who are only going out to linedance, which
is obviously only a subset of people who linedance when they're out.
Nevertheless, I suspect that there's some simple (or maybe not so simple)
social group differentation being played out on this subject in which
dancing styles is only the ostensible issue. The crowd at Coyote's was
pretty easily distinguishable from the crowd at Kaldi's and the Comet, where
I play bluegrass (and the Comet has a very alt.country-friendly jukebox), or
at the Jefferson (where I saw the Derailers and the Hollisters); there are
class and educational and possibly regional and certainly cultural (like
they're all different things, ha) differences that I can't help but think
inform attitudes - probably on both sides of the divide, I hasten to add.
Regardless, Sara Evans put on a very good show, and classic-country-friendly
and educational to boot. I'm not at all convinced that every, or even many,
alt.country bands are doing a whole lot better job of introducing their
audiences to George Jones, Harlan Howard, Buck Owens, etc.
Check her out if she comes through your town.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
