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 AR 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 -
