Re: To hoax or not to hoax
actually, the email that's being sent around talks about a bill in Congress dealing with the internet and local/long distance phone rates. There IS NO BILL remotely like this. That email, indeed, IS a hoax and I cringe every time it's sent to me (several times a week). The FCC story, however, is real. Most folks who cover Washington, including the FCC, know that the idea of charging long distance phone rates for internet access is a political hot potato. The warning applies, though -- don't send around bits of "news" that you've been emailed without checking them out. On another note: -- there IS a real virus floating around -- called happy99.exe (or something similar). I've received this executable as an attachment four times in the past week, but, thank goodness, didn't open it. If you open it (it's a little video of fireworks in the sky), it'll attach itself to every email that YOU then send out! boo! there's evidently a fix at an url that someone mailed. me. This really IS a virus! dq NP:Elena Skye
Re: elena,ghostrockets,htc review
Here's the Richmond Times-Dispatch review of the Capital City Barn Dance show Saturday night featuring Elena Skye and the Demolition String Band, The Ghostrockets and Honky Tonk Confidential: Monday, March 1, 1999 BY BILL CRAIG Special Correspondent For the past two years, the Capital City Barn Dance has been holding monthly showcases of local and regional talent recruited from the way left-hand side of the country music dial. After beginning its run amid the hyperactivity of Shockoe Bottom, the Barn Dance recently found a new home in the almost suburban confines of the Dogtown Lounge. Similarly, Elena Skye got her professional start in the wild world of New Jersey and New York punk rock before the rediscovery of bluegrass music led her to turn down the volume and form her traditional country-influenced but cowpunk-driven quartet, Elena Skye and the Demolition String Band. So it seemed quite appropriate in a honky-tonk kind of way that Skye and company headlined a Barn Dance lineup Saturday night that they shared with the Ghost Rockets, fellow New Jersey residents, and Washington's Honky Tonk Confidential. Backed by the slick lead guitar of Bo Reiners, Skye opened the evening with a bluegrass instrumental and a Jimmie Rodgers cover before sliding into a sample of hard-core honkabilly. The hour-long set included a whole bunch of twangy heartache, highlighted by the big shuffle of "Biggest Piece of Nothing," the Tex-Mex flavored "I'll Try Not to Cry Tonight" and a juiced-up version of Loretta Lynn's "Get What You Got and Go." As a reminder of just how alternative it is, the quartet followed the bouncy conventional country pain of "It Still Hurts" with "Are You Armed," a cool honky-tonk/surf music instrumental hybrid. The evening's most unadulterated twang was provided by the four men and one woman of Honky Tonk Confidential. Carried by the vocals of Diana Quinn, Mike Woods and Geff King and a ton of sweet string work, the band paid homage to the founding fathers and mothers of country music with reverent interpretations of tunes by, among others, Wanda Jackson, Bob Wills and Johnny Cash, along with a handful of originals that sounded as if they were written two or three decades ago. Quinn and the boys knocked out a nice little survey course in country music history with songs such as Jim Ed Brown's bouncy "Pop a Top," Johnny Paycheck's "A-11" and Cash's classic "Folsom Prison Blues." Best of the originals included "Down in Washington, " a honky-tonkified look at the state of the union, the swingin' feel of "(Ain't A) Texas Gal" and the self-explanatory confessional "Lottery Tickets, Cigarettes and Booze." The Ghost Rockets closed out Hoboken Night at the Barn Dance with a song list that, while featuring a mighty fine Louvin Brothers tune, earned an A for alternative content. The five-man band's shades of country ranged from the country/pop of "This Girl of Mine" and the Southern rock of "Family Tree" to the bluesy jammin' of "Hard to Get" and the classically hard-core country of "Sitting Alone in the Moonlight." The Capital City Barn Dance returns to the Dogtown Lounge on March 27 with the Ex-Husbands, Lancaster County Prison and the Steam Donkeys. © 1999, Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Re: The song Wah! Hoo! by Cliff Friend
My latest ebay acquisition (and count me among those of you who have bought an un-needed accordian from this site! I think I'm going to have to have a feature (on the soon-to-be-launched ezine) called Accordian Tales! stories of people who have been forced by supernatural powers to buy accordians on ebay! --- anyway, by latest ebay acqusition is the sheet music to Wah! Hoo!, by Cliff Friend. The question: what movie was this song featured in? The song was written in 1946, i know that Riders in the Sky have recorded it, and Garrison K has sung it on his radio show. The movie is a mid-30s musical with the typical Depression-era good-times-are-just-around-the-corner attitude. All I remember of the song is cowgirls in full cowgirl getup RIDING stationary HOBBY HORSES in a most --er-- coquettish? way and singing Wah Hoo, Wah Hoo, Wah Hoo. I was so happy when my hunch that the sheet music I bid on and bought turned out to be right. The lyrics go: Way out west where men are men and women are very sweet that's where I wanna be, that's where I'm gonna be Way out west just once again where happiness is complete there's just one thing I miss -- and it is this. Oh gimme a horse, a great big horse and gimme a buckaroo, and let me Wah! Hoo! Wah! Hoo! Wah! Hoo Oh! gimme a ranch, a big pair of pants and gimme a stetson too and let me you get the idea.I love this song! but what's the movie?? (driving me crazy) diana
web site -Reply
hi laura i'll link to you --- and we are Honky Tonk Confidential http://www.muddypaws.com/honkytonk.html and I'm starting a little ezine -- which should be up in a few weeks Twang Thang Magazine http://www.twangthang.com
Re: Wahrs and Thangs
Yep -- we use a lot of cables and wahrs here in DC, too on Twangthang.com y'know, after i registered the domain name (twangthang) i thought -- gee i hope that no one gets mad at me -- but i couldn't resist, and, besides, we've been bantering about the twangthang in DC for years (Bill Kirchen's twangabilly) -- as well as the newer "it's a twang thang you wouldn't understand" -- so it just came naturally -- but please forgive me if anyone feel the slightest bit encroached, and that includes jeff's twangzine and any other twangs out there. As far as I'm concerned, though, it's a fair focus and a good moniker for whatever holds "alt-country" or "alt.country" or whatever-it-is together. I also first thought: well maybe there are too many people out there doing the "alt-country" ezine thang -- but I don't think we can have enough folks proselytizing on the internet -- and I KNOW that the folks in my part of the world playing this kind of music -- some who have been doing it for more than 20-odd years -- need some deserved attention net-wise, and that's my slant. And besides, it gives the music writers among us yet another venuu (email me!) dq
RE:looking fora phone number
Willie Nelson's manager -- anyone have it? please email privately! (and I'll tell you why i want it) diana
RE: why we hate line-dancing
The reason musicians hate line-dancing (and I love to dance) is because, with a few exceptions, those who go out specifically to line-dance will dance only to those songs they know. Sure, we get line-dancers occasionally dancing to Ray Price or Buck Owens songs, but they are a rarity. Most of these folks want to do one thing, and they have little tolerance for what they don't know or understand.
Re: old people's music
kip l wrote: "this P2 bag, this Americana/Alt-Country/Roots-Rock thing that gets discussed here? It's Old People Music" Well, isn't the american population getting older? Aren't we (me, anyway -- on the tail end) baby boomers the majority? I'm banking on the hope that folks my age group -- now that the kids are starting to grow up - will start going out to clubs again and start spending money on cds again. If they don't -- well there's another phenomenon. The kids -- the 15 year olds and 12 years olds etc -- are listening to music that WE like to listen to! And they're listening to the Beach Boys and the Beatles just as much as Better than Ezra or Fugazi. Alternative country/country has a problem, though, and it spans the generations. People have built-in prejudices against it. Some folks at work bought the HTC cd and a few days later came around to say - gee i really like the record, and I don't like country. Well -- doo doo head -- it IS country! That's what country sounds like! THey've got it in their heads that it's all big beefy sound and look-alikes in big hats doing the Achy Breaky Heart or flying around a huge concert stage -- or warblers with big hair in turquoise polyester gowns (not that I'm dissing big hair not at all! see:TBouffants). So if I were betting on a crossover band to be our nirvana, i'd bet on one of the bands playing kind of punky thrashy country. Not that I particularly Like that brand of alt country - it's just that attention brought on whoever that is will expand to the rest of us, -- kind of a trickle down theory of music. dq
Re: dang me!
I wrote Twenty years ago I had to go to Skip Groff's indie store in Rockville to hear the new punk 45s -- now all I have to do is dial of twangcast.com... jon weisberger wrote: ??? What the hell are you up to over there, Mike? You mean that wasnt THe Angry Young Turds I heard on twangcast.com yesterday? what have I been drinking? i meant -- twangast.com to hear the latest stuff -- another correction -- we didn't start the punk movement in the late 80s -- it was late 70s! boof!!
Re: cd reviewing ethics Danger: long and a bit preachy!
linda ray wrote: "Nobody's Dan Rather, here, and nobody's covering Congress." (i can't help but reply!) Close but no cigar -- I DO cover congress and I did give dan a copy of the HTC cd the other day and invited him to sit in with us and sing a coupla train songs any day (we both work for the same outfit) -- I haven't written any alt-country/country reviews yet, but I will. Because writing about alt-country/country is different than covering other genres. Right now it's a fairly underground scene -- Mike and I call the "scene" in DC underground because there aren't many venues for it here and there are no radio stations that play it (no americana stations around, either -- can you believe it?) BUT the audiences are growing - rapidly, because there is the PERCEPTION of a scene. And if there's a perceived scene, there is a scene. We had a terrible ice storm here in DC last Thursday, and - despite write-ups in the Washington Post and City Paper -- I really thought the only people who'd show up for the Greetings from the District of Country cd release party at Iota would be the players. I was happily wrong -- it was jam-packed. We are CREATING a scene here! But whatever you call it -- a scene-- a "movement" or whatever -- for the most part, the publicity isn't going to be done for us - we have to do some flag-waving ourselves. That's what the punkers and new wavers did back in the late 80s in dc- we rented storefronts and begged clubs to let us play on Mondays -- we plastered the town with flyers and started fanzines. Who else was going to write for the fanzines but the musicians? People read DCenes in the record stores, saw our flyers on lightposts around Dupont Circle and Georgetown, then started hearing our records on WGTB (bless you may you rest in peace) and on WHFS (which has now turned into a slop-90s haha "alternative"-those-kids-don't-know-the-meaning-of-alternative station) and it became a very very big scene. My little band Tru Fax the Insaniacs sold out the cavernous (as in Luray Caverns it was so big) Wax Museum and 9:30 Club many times -- and so did our compatriots like the Slickee Boys and Insect Surfers and Tiny Desk Unit and Urban Verbs and many many bands. Oops, I'm getting loud. Anyway, the idea is to grow a "scene" the way we grew up those many years ago. And if i have to put on my own barn dances and publish my own little fanzine or ezine or whatever to help it grow, I'll do it. A slight aside: I think that fanzine and ezine writing is a lot different than writing for, say, The Washington Post. Eric Brace writes a "Circuits" column every week for the Post's Weekend Section. It's about the clubs and bands and shows in town. He's also in the very very good Last Train Home band, but he is not allowed to write about any shows or cds that band is involved in. I asked him to be on the Greetings cd, but he said that he couldn't, because he was going to write about the cd release party. He straddles a very wide road, but he does it very very well. But I wish he were on the cd and I wish he'd play my danged barn dance!
RE:ethics and growing a scene-one more thing
One big difference between growing a scene today and twenty years ago is that today we have the internet. We have a way to link to others (you all) who are interested in this kind of music and working in their home towns on growing the scene -- locally and nationally. Twenty years ago I had to go to Skip Groff's indie store in Rockville to hear the new punk 45s -- now all I have to do is dial of twangcast.com -- or go to miles of music or village on the internet and order a couple of cds. And the very knowledgeable radio jocks on this list are doing their part -- both at home where they can proselytize for their weekly one or two or three hours-- as well as right here on this list. OK i'll stop now. But everyone think of what we're doing here -- I think it's very very exciting! (pant pant) gotta go calm down now. walk the dogs or something
Re: the TNN awards
Well, i held my nose and just voted in JUST A FEW of the TNN Music City News Country Awards. Pukesville! no wonder country radio is starting to fade! We have a country music monthly in the DC-area called Country Plus -- it used to be 40 pages and was down to something like 16 pages in the last issue. I talked to the editor/publisher/chief bottle washer last week, because I wanted to take out an ad about our upcoming barn dances (STILL DONT HAVE A GOOD NAME) and she told me that the line-dancing bars are all closing (that's true) and the western wear shops are starting to fall like dominoes. dq
Re: Twangcast
well i finally got twangcast.com to work on my computer and had a very enjoyable afternoon -- especially liking the Heather Myles (surprised me!) and Cigar Store Indians cuts. wah-hoo!
