Hicks with Sticks » saddle cats

SADDLE CATS HONOR CALIFORNIA’S WESTERN SWING PAST

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:18:50 +0000

Mention western swing and most will think of Bob Wills, Texas or Oklahoma, but what about California? Few realize that western swing was regional music until the Golden State laid claim to it. Bob Wills moved to California in 1943 to join the 2.5 million (a heap o’ folks back then) who’d already escaped the Dust Bowl. It was Southern California radio, music and movies that repackaged and sold the cowboy, singing or otherwise, to the world.

Richard Chon (Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, Sons of the San Joaquin) is the Saddle Cats‘ fearless leader, a hecka fine fiddle player, and a California music historian. (He’s credited in Gerald Haslam’s Workin’ Man Blues: Country Music in California, Univ. of California Press, 1999). He’s also got himself a fine bunch o’ musicians with pedal steel player Bobby Black (Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Asleep at the Wheel), geetar picker Gordon Clegg and bassist Bing Nathan; together they’ve made Heardin’ Cats, a tribute to California’s western swing legacy.

Richard Chon?

The CD is divided between standards and not-so-standard western swing tracks: all California born and bred. “Roly Poly” is a Fred Rose song that’s been covered by hundreds of bands yet it was a first for Wills and California in ‘46. The perennially popular “What’s the Matter with the Mill” is a veiled song, as music like this had to be back in the day, about the closing of a house of ill repute. “Who Walks in when I Walk Out” is about cheatin’. “You’ve Got the Right Key Baby, but the Wrong Keyhole” is about greener pastures. Yep, all these themes were in western swing well before honky-tonk found them.

Instrumentals, which were popular back in the day, get their play too, and who’d have thought that a classic like “Oklahoma Stomp” was California born?

At its best this music flows and flows, and with four crack musicians plus Chon himself getting a fine country croon on, the Herdin’ Cats CD flows like the Big Muddy. This is music for sittin’ a spell, sippin’ a little and watchin’ the sun go down; and the history lesson comes at no extra charge.

BAY AREA BAND UPDATES

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:31:47 +0000

BAND WATCH: Western Swing favorites The Saddle Cats have released their first CD, Herding Cats, so look for some CD release parties coming soon… The Cowlicks also have a new CD called Hey, Hey We’re the Cowlicks and a release party on Friday July 3rd at the Devil’s Canyon Brewery in Belmont… J. Byrd Hosch, the transplanted Texas songbird with an ultra-low profile is working on a CD to be released in September… Hang on to your livers because brothers Jack Spade and Jimmy Whiskey have (sort of) formed two bands: the Jack Spade Trio and (the return of the) Big Bad Wolves. It’s difficult to say if these really are two bands since the bands share members full and part-time, and after a few drinks they like to be one band again. Huh, what? Who knows? These bands may reconfigure themselves 2 or 3 times a night depending on the Jim Beam supply… Rumors of the Shut-Ins’ demise are premature. Mike Roper has been taking time off to work with Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, develop Cheetahs on the Moon and be a dad, but the Shut-Ins themselves are scheduled for a show in October… The Blue Diamond Fillups have arrived with their own brand of pedal to the metal rockabilly… The Jesse Jay Harris Quartet, a side project from the Rancho Deluxe guitarist, played its last show for the foreseeable future. Work of the day-job variety is taking Harris to LA. He’ll be back to the Bay Area soon with Rancho Deluxe… The Sweet ‘n’ Lo’s have reorganized from a quartet to a trio and renamed the band Li’l Anne and the Tune Wranglers… The B-Stars are glad to have released their 6-song CD which provides an excellent taste of what this four-piece is about… The Blushin’ Roulettes hail from Mendocino County with a bluesy/country acoustic mix that provides a tasty listen on their MySpace page.

ALL THE NEWS THAT PRINTS IN FITS

admin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:40:30 +0000

Yard Sale, the trio with a fine blend of pop and country songs, is set to release their second CD with a release party set for July 11th and Café Royale. Find regular progress reports on MySpace… Misisipi Rider released its new CD in Mid-March, but after a roll-out show at Amnesia, they’ll be on hold until April 17th when they play the Plough and Stars on Clement Street in SF. Hear tracks and find their calendar on their MySpace page… The Country Casanovas will be coming out with their first CD within weeks. They just recorded it two weeks ago and the mix was finished a week and a half later. Apparently their drummer, Bing Nathan, stops at nothing once he gets into CD making mode… The Saddle Cats, a western

Dilks & Alpert?

swing four-piece, are revving up for their CD release in May… Johnny Dilks is coming out of hibernation with a new band, JD & the Barroom Roses. This time around he’s planning a horn section and looking to develop a Herb Alpert meets “Ring of Fire” sound… The Rockin’ Cabbie checked in with a fool-proof random plan that anyone can use to name a band, title a CD and select a CD cover photo. First, click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random and use whatever Wikipedia returns as the band’s name. Wikipedia named HWS News’ imaginary band Regular Verb. Second, click on http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 and use the last few words of the last quotation on the page for the CD’s title. Quotations Page gave HWS News F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.”

Faux CDs, Cheap!

Next, pick one of the nine pictures at http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting /7days for the CD’s cover. Put them together using the drawing tools in MS Word or some other word and picture crunching software. For an added touch, revisit Wikipedia for the name of the label. This faux CD will be released on the 4177 Kohman pseudo-label, named after an asteroid found in 1987. Send your CD cover, using the subject line “15-seconds of fame” to HWS News to get your entry into the next newsletter.