Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 4: Jockey Full of Bourbon

As things start getting autumnal in parts northeast, we here at RK-BS Industries continue, like a fine PBS Frontline documentary, to address the events of this past spring.  So here's a funky(ish) number for you from the March combo, Day 1, when we were fresh and saucy.  Just in case anyone was under the impression that your Merry Band of Hooters limited ourselves to slop-rock and a Beatles cover, well, take a spin on "Jockey Full of Bourbon".  I believe it was a cover that was broached independently by Dillo and Roger, and therefore proof that great minds do think alike. 

For those not familiar with the song, "Jockey Full of Bourbon" is yet another classic sprung from the carnival mind of the great Tom Waits, off of his landmark "Rain Dogs" LP from '85.  The original is indeed a distillation of that particular Waits-ian era: barking vocals, chugging rhythms, a stinging and echo-laden guitar line, bubbling organ, a baritone sax, tons of percussion, something that sounds like a whip cracking, and lyric references to busted $2 pistols, Cuban jail, a Slingerland ride (cymbal, that is), stepping on the devil's tail and, it goes without saying, bourbon, birds and a house on fire.

We slowed it down a bit and tried to play up the Afro-Cuban feel.  Double secret extra credit goes to Mr. Bonanos, who absolutely sealed the deal by nailing his parts on the inimitable Wurlitzer 200a electronic piano. Maybe next time we lay on a horn section!  Now accepting applications....


Roggie: vocs and gtr; Paul B: Wurlitzer; Paul C: Bass; JK: gtr, percussion; Road: Drums

Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 3: Sail On

Keeping it brief, we're pushing onward through the last-minute mixing tweaks and we're into the middle third of the group recordings from this past March.  I think it's fair to say that this here number would've been the Song Voted Most Fun to Play by the participants of Hoot '11.  Songs like this are your purest, basic hootenanny fodder and, what with all the Lionel Ritchie visions dancing through one's head, it's hard not to get your goof on.  It's kinda funny that such a country pop hit would've sprung from such a smooth funky beast as the Commodores but I suppose that being Alabama boys, it was in their blood.  Credit also to the Supersuckers, who play a nice version that inspired this one in no small part. 

Sail On:


Bonanos: Wurlitzer; Cardillo: Bass; Evitts: Drums; Sorkin: lead guitar, vocals; Keating: Rhythm guitar, steel, vocals

let's go to the videotape

After more than a year, rumor has it that video footage of the 2010 Buttsteak reunion show has been smuggled out of Charm City and made its way up the coast. Experts are examining the files and, hopefully, scrubbing out the embarrassing and/or off-key, but that won't leave us with much. Perhaps there will be an un-redacted Assange-like release? 

Better yet, perhaps there's a way to post older material that Oken edited down a few years ago.  Whaddya say, boys?

Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 2-- Dylan and the Band

A couple years ago, I was taking a coffee break from my professorly duties in North Grafton, and was over at the Newbury Comics store in Shrewsbury, MA.  I bought a copy of Bob Dylan's just released official Bootleg Series Vol. 5 release of  the "Rolling Thunder Revue, Live 1975".  Popped it into the car's CD player, waited out those first delicious, silent, anticipatory moments, and then got flat-out walloped by the first cut, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You".  Nearly plowed into several cars in the "Stah Mahket" lot, I did!  It's a totally different beast from the crooning, laid-back "Nashville Skyline" original--  an amped-up, rip-roarin' version, supplying that good ol' "Ya Ya Ya!!!  Rock Rock Rock!!" adrenaline charge in spades.  In the back of my mind I thought "Hmmmm.... Maybe we can rip this off someday?....".   Well, that day is here!  Or, I should say, it was here at the end of March.  "Tonight..." was the first song we recorded from this March's Harpswell Hootenanny and, after not being sure if the organization was really going to gel, we looked around when we'd finished a run-through and breathed a collective "Hell yeah-- Something just happened there!"

And what better to pair that with than a classic from the "Basement Tapes" sessions of Bob and the Band?  We ran through this version on  Sunday, after Roggie had already decamped for home and we'd devolved into 3-chord garage slop-rockers.  After sometimes getting bogged down, as will happen, with take after take of some long and/or tricky and/or demanding song or other, there's nothing like a good dollop of rock n' roll to clear the old pipes and put a charge back in your ticker.wo

May have some more pics for your viewing pleasure, and perhaps a video or two.  For now, git on out there and enjoy some fine long weekend action!

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You:

Paul B- Wurlitzer; Rog- lead gtr/ harmony voc; Dillo- bass; Road- drums; JK- rhythm gtr, voc, pedal steel, organ

Odds and Ends:

Paul B and Dillo- guitars; Road- drums; JK- bass, keys, voc