The instrumentals represent a wide range of styles, the first of which, “How High the Moon”, is a lively, jazzy tune in the style of the jazz trio that the versatile Mr. Jones also leads. Next, the title track is a rocker in the spirit of Duane Eddy or Link Wray, and it simultaneously rips, runs, embraces and soars. “Vibro Erotica” is a luscious lounge track, while “Prairie Dog Daddy” is a western swing track; both of which are accented with Jinx Jones’ own “touches”. “Roma’s Song” is a soft, almost dream-like guitar study. These five tracks cover considerable ground, ranging as they do between jazz, rock, lounge, western swing and romance. Taken together, they are their own CD; one that’s titled All the Different Kinds of Fun in My Guitar. But nobody will buy that CD, and there was no place else to put them, so they’ve been scattered, something like big league pitcher’s change-ups, throughout Rip and Run.

The songs with the words and stuff constitute a fine honky-tonk mix all written by Jones who usually depends on the lyrics of others in songs he covers. Sin prevails throughout. “On Parole and Out of Control” is about a gal who, barely out of her orange jumpsuit, is already looking for trouble. “Never Live It Down” mentions local watering holes like the Saddle Rack, the 23 Club, the El Rio and the Shamrock, as starting points for drinking to excess then running afoul of bouncers and police officers from Fremont to ‘Frisco. And what would a honky-tonk record be without a song like “Doghouse”, where our hero brings on a storm of girlfriend trouble after sidetracking himself into a house of ill repute? Coming home reeking of liquor and cheap perfume hath never the fair heart of a lady won, not by a long shot.

The subject of sin in honky-tonk has been so thoroughly explored that it should not come as a surprise to find that some tracks are derivative. “No Beer in Heaven” doesn’t add much to “In Heaven there Is No Beer”, and “What Makes You Think I’m Lonesome” has been cloned from the “She Thinks I Still Care” extended family of songs. Yet even when the lyrics drift into the tried and true, there’s always something happening on the guitar to recapture the listener’s interest.

Jinx Jones’ CDs are about the guitar as the instrumentals on this one have done their best to explain. The best advice is to approach Rip and Run with a mind open to exploration rather than closed by preconceived expectations. Jones has set his own bar and leaves it to the listener to discover where he’s placed it.

HWS ON KALW: PETER THOMPSON'S "BLUEGRASS SIGNAL" 11-27-2010

HWS ON KALX WITH MEATY PAWS ON "WHY BABY, WHY" 11-30-2010

Find more about most of these bands including links to sites, videos and more on the HWS Bands page.

Hear your local twang bands via two Hicks with Sticks co-hosted radio shows, both broadcast and on the Web.  The first is this Saturday 11/27 on KALW from 6:30-8:00 and will feature all Bay Area musicians including the latest releases from the West Coast Ramblers, Red Meat, Plain High Drifters, Jinx Jones and the Kingtones, and more.  We’re sitting in with Peter Thompson of Bluegrass Signal who will give bluegrass the day off to make room for the amplifiers and drum kits twang crowd.

The next show is late on Tuesday11/30, which is technically Wednesday in the early AM.  Meaty Paws and yours truly, Jose Segue, will be hosting Why Baby, Why on KALX at UC, Berkeley from midnight to 1:00 am.  We’ll play local recent releases, but of course different tracks than those on KALW, so you can listen to both show and have it fresh.  In addition we’ll play the Kathy Kallick song that got her band banned from four(!) bluegrass festivals, and we’ll be spinning some great moments in Bay Area twang history including Joan Baez doing Bob Dylan songs country style with Nashville’s finest from the early ’70s, and the one great track from Neil Young’s otherwise “lost” ’80s period when he was under contract with Geffen Records, was unhappy with them, and they sued him for making crummy albums just to spite them.

Big Vic of Mandatory Merle

Mandatory Merle features Big Vic Estrella (Big Mistake, SF Cattle Co.) who, like some exotic species of accordion-playing cicada, emerges every three years with a new band.  There’s no site, as Haggard would have wanted it, but look for their first show, which has been threatened for months, on the HWS calendar.

Plain High Smelley

Smelley Kelley’s Plain High Drifters is another band that recycles itself, usually every six years or so.  They date back to the ’90s, when they were the East Bay Drifters with different personnel yet with Smelley, who most know from Red Meat, at the helm.  These guys have been wood-shedding and playing “secret” shows for six-months.  They played their breakout gig at Ireland’s 32 on 11/14 with Les James, also from Red Meat, on drums; and two former Burning Embers, Eric Embry on rhythm guitar and banjo, and Tom Armstrong on electric bass.  Dave Janusco, who was in the previous PHDs, plays lead and rhythm guitars.  They’ve also come out of the box with a 15-song CD.  PHD Site.

The Switchbacks

The Switchbacks played the Make-Out Room a few months ago.  They’ve got a honky-tonkin’ sound but little has been heard from them lately.  Find their songs and videos, but no calendar, on their MySpace page.

The Deadicated Maniacs have that California easy-listening sound inspired by the Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage, and they are not afraid to play stages with tie-die backwalls. Find inner peace at their site.

Jenny Lynn and her Real Gone Daddies is a new rockabilly band that’s thin in the website department.  They’ve been playing in “Where the hell is ‘Elmira’,” up by Vacaville. Jenny’s granpaw apparently recorded with Rose Maddox.  The video on “Bang, Bang” is jumpy, but its audio is in good shape and well worth a listen.

Purvis and the Stray Dogs is another Internet-averse rockabilly outfit, but they do have a write-up with song samples here.  Steeped in the R&R of the ’50s, their song samples suggest an approach similar to BlueNoteCats or The Dave Crimmen Band.

The Dave Crimmen Band

Veteran Crimmen himself has a new CD and a new book about his wayward youth in the Broadmoor Village neighborhood of  Daly City.  The book release is Wed. Nov. 17th @ Daly City Doelger Center, 101 Lake Merced Blvd. Daly City @ 7:00, free.  The release party for Full Circle is two days later on the Friday, 19th @ Abby Tavern, 4100 Geary Blvd., SF, 9:30 , also free.   Site link.

The Fancy Dan Band released its second CD, Sing to Survive.  Their first was produced in Nashville and their latest seems more home-grown, both in location and production.  This band needs a strong producer and Sing to Survive sounds like independent ears weren’t in the budget. And where are the threads?  Has the recession cut into their clothing budget too?

Valerie Jay

Valerie Jay has been low on the radar for four years while making time for her two new daughters.  She’s scaled the band down from a seven-piece to a trio with a sound reminiscent of Margo Timmins and early Cowboy Junkies.

Sonoma County’s Twang Ditty is alive and well with a new guitarist brightening up their honky-tonk standards.  It was an adventure to find them playing the Druids Hall in Santa Rosa. The Druids are a community outfit, like Rotary, Elks or Moose.  The median age of the dancers and this regular Friday night event, which features various bands, was about 75.

Also in Sonoma County news, the Black Cat, a dive in Penngrove just northeast of Petaluma, has changed hands again.  This comes on the heels of some discouraging reports of bands making less than gas money to play there.  The bar muddled along for the past few years as a wimmen’s club house, but Penngrove just isn’t big enough for identity politics.  Hopefully the new owners will get the message.  Meanwhile, live music is thriving at Penngrove’s other club, the Twin Oaks.  This joint keeps its doors open to Americana and closed to the Internet.  It takes a genuine old-fashioned telephone call to book your band or find out who is playing there.

Bluegrassers Homespun Rowdy played Amnesia one Monday every month for eight years. Now they’ve moved on as life has placed other responsibilities on the band members.  Shorter lived L’il Anne and the Tune Wranglers faded away when it became more work than fun for front woman Anne Arnheim.

The first of two DJed events is the revival of the Rockabilly Fridays in SF with a rotation of DJs Samoa Boy, Rockin’ Raul, Okie Oran and Sergio Inglesias spinning ancient R&B on vinyl at ReTox on 20^th Street just off 3^rd in SF.  This is a revival of the popular Jay ‘n’ Bee Fridays that the Grinch at City Hall ended for lack of a cabaret license.  The other features Dr. Scott and Miss Cherry Bomb playing old school R&R, surf, R&B and country on third Thursdays at Forbidden Island in Alameda.

Hicks with Sticks is gearing up for two radio shows at the end of this month featuring the latest from twangin’ local bands.  Peter Thompson’s Bluegrass Signal will host HWS on Saturday the 27^th from 6:30-8:00 PM on KALW.

KALX

Three evenings later, Meaty Paws and Jose Segue will be at it again on KALX‘s Why Baby, Why during Tuesday November 30^th at midnight, which is technically very early on Wednesday December 1^st for those who are counting.  Both are on the Internet for listening beyond each station’s broadcast range.

And there may even be a night of honky-tonkin’ vinyl, good beer and classy weenies at Rosamoude in the Mission.  Stay tuned.

Updated Post 9-3-10
This felt like the best show Meaty Paws and I have done.  After four or five of them we’re getting our groove down.  Here’s the playlist:

HWS on KALX, 8-31-10

The first group through Kathy Kallick’s “New White House Blues” are all new releases, with Red Meat’s live CD being played four days since its release party.  Next are 2009 and early 2010 releases from Bay Area bands except for the last four tracks which were played to introduce lesser known bands that have toured the Bay Area.

Hicks with Sticks is working on getting a podcast going for these shows.  Stay tuned.

Original Post 8-31-10
Hicks with Sticks will be a guest on KALX‘s Why Baby, Why at midnight tonight.  Follow the link and tune in over the airwaves or via the Internet to hear the latest from Red Meat, The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, The Whiskey Richards, The Famous, The GoldDiggers, Chop Tops, The Mission Three and Kathy Kallick.  We’ll also play 2009 favorites from Bay Area Bands plus a set of music from bands that toured the Bay Area recently, were easy to miss, yet are bands you need to know (’cause they’ll be back) like the Lucky Stars, Ten Foot Tall & 80 Proof, David Serby and Pine Leaf Boys.

KALX DJ Meaty Paws is has his own show and is one of the rotating DJs for Why Baby Why.  He’s started booking HWS onto Why Baby Why every time there’s a fifth Tuesday in a month.  Our last show was at the end of June, the next will be in November, but for now tonight’s the night.

Stay Away Joes

New bands form and others fade away.  Uphill Both Ways is one of the new bands with a smooth, sometimes rocking, sound and samples that can be heard here…   The Stay Away Joes are a new rockabilly group with song samples on their MySpace page…  Small Gas Engine, which has the heart of a counrty band, wants you to listen to their songs and explain to them what kind of band they are…  The Mighty Slim Pickens will be taking a break following the departure of bassist Roxanne Chicoine.  If anyone knows a female stand-up bassist who likes to slap it around, get in touch…  Lady A and her Heel Draggers have at least one more show scheduled, but we hear that it may be followed by an extended break which would be regrettable as this band seemed to be hitting a stride…  Li’l Anne and the Tune Wranglers may be on extended hiatus as well. This band emerged from the Sweet ‘n’ Lo’s and was on a roll until the departure of Danny Santos. Belle Monroe, who plays guitar with her own Brewglass Boys, stepped in to play stand-up bass and sing, but she’s one busy gal.  Meanwhile, Li’l Anne, who has been at it steadily since the S & L’s, is thinking maybe she needs to take a break from the music biz…  It looks like the Shut-Ins are going the way of the Bootcuts as a band that can abide and endure for decades by playing rarely.  Mike Roper (uke, vox) has been devoting more time to Cheetahs on the Moon and Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, while John Poultney (guitar, vox) has become inspired to do original material.  Let’s hope these boys still have a few more Riptide Xmas specials in them.  Theirs is the only Hicks with Sticks-approved Xmas special on the planet.

Hobo Gobbelins

Larry Bob Roberts has been presiding over the first Tuesdays Americana shows at El Rio for about two years and presented his last one this month.  Roberts’ strength was in finding bands that are somewhere on the Americana spectrum but not necessarily in country, rockabilly of any other easily identifiable niche.  The Hobo Gobbelins who closed the run are a case in point, consisting of an uncertain mix of Americana, klezmer, Irish, old-tyme, Slim Cessna, sea shanty, and any other inspiration that comes in over their transom.

The 52 Week Club is the brainchild of Willie Tea (The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit) and Tom VandenAvond that challenges its members to write a song every week for a year.  It’s free to join and about as simple as them picking the topic and you writing the song.  The line up so far is: Week 1: The Scout, Week 2: Sandpaper, Week 3: Baked Treats, Week 4: Them Travelers, and Week 5: Basking in the Cold Concrete.  You can catch up by writing one song about a scout who was sandpapering his baked treats while traveling and tanning over cold concrete.

Even into the ’90s it was standard for music fans to buy a CD based on music they heard on the radio.  Then they would go to a concert expecting the band to sound like the CD, and most bands would oblige because those were the days when CDs served mass markets.

Radio is no longer a big factor in music, and stores that sell CDs are disappearing faster than you can say “Tower Records.”  Mass merchandising of hardcopy music has been replaced by single-song softcopy sales on iTunes and MySpace.  For most bands, the once mighty CD is now on a par with t-shirts, posters, and stickers, and CD sales are tied to live performances instead of CD outlet stores.  Audiences want to take home what they heard on the stage rather than what they heard on radio, so the CD needs to sound like the band instead of the other way around.

Mastering Engineer Michael Romanowski, who has recorded the Rock Soup Ramblers as well as Misisipi Rider live, is seeing and increase in demand for live in the studio and live in the clubs.  Cost is the driving force, and there doesn’t seem to be much incentive for recording studio wizardry, extensive mixing and overdubbing, without a mass market to pay for it.

Beyond cost, Romanowski also talks about an artistic incentive.  He notes that live in the studio recordings pack more emotional punch than “canned in the studio.”  Live in the studio sessions allow band mates to hear each other in a new way.  He calls it playing the song instead of playing their instruments. Bands don’t use headsets in his sessions which pushes them to listen to each other and balance each instrument’s volume because there is no remix on a live take.  If an instrument is too loud or too soft, the band has to do another take.

The studio room itself is another factor.  Texas Steve and the Git Gone Trio got the vintage rockabilly sound that they were looking for by recording in a garage studio.  Misisipi Rider needed a more dampened room to bring out the acoustic-driven emotions they wanted to capture.

There’s more on the technical end, and there can be post-production in live recording that can raise costs if a band hasn’t done its homework before going into the studio.  Still, for a cost-effective recording alternative, live in the studio works as long as the band members know their parts and the songs have gelled before their studio concert begins. MySpace

Don Burnham and his dog "20-20 Hindsight"

The Wall Street Journal has caught up with Hicks with Sticks News in describing the trend toward songs about the Great Depression of ‘09 (HWS News, 12/24/08).  A WSJ story of 2/6/09 missed Don Burnham’s “Apple and Google and Gold” but they did include Santa Cruz mountain man Neil Young’s “Fork in the Road” and Marin County satirical musician Roy Zimmerman’s “Buddy Can to Spare a Trillion” to the growing list of music for the fiscally impaired.  Play ‘em and weep.