Maybe it’s the N.W.A t-shirt that Josh Zee wears, or the way he leaps off an amplifier, guitar-gripping and both knees reaching the sky. Maybe it’s his scruffy beard or the way he wears his baseball hat all shady-like over his eyes. Maybe it’s the contrast to Teal Collins next to him, with a voice as lovely as the bow on her dress and the barrettes in her hair. Maybe it’s the
way she sings “come on boy, don’t be shy-- I’m gonna eat ya like an apple pie..” while stomping in platform sandals. Take the songwriting teamwork and musicality of these two-- and, hey, the fashion-- match them with bassist Danny G and drummer Dan Thompson (absent the night I saw them), add a heavy dose of southern electric country-fried Americana.. and there you have the Mother Truckers.
My 3rd night living in Austin was December 31, 2006. I went to a local Mexican family restaurant on South 1st to see my songwriting hero James McMurtry for the first time, on New Year‘s Eve. I was not nervous, but I was alone and new in town. I noticed a guy next to me getting a beer at the bar. He was wearing a black t-shirt with an ostensibly poignant logo-- a human hand giving the classic “rock” sign with a cowboy hat teetering off the pointer finger. “Who are the Mother Truckers? What are they like?” I asked. His confident answer: “They fucking rock.” That was all I needed to hear.
In 2007 I caught the Truckers at several Happy Hours around Austin. This contributed to the roots of my radio show in 2008 at WRUV-FM in Burlington, VT called The Happy Hour. I spun their music regularly to the greater Burlington area and worldwide web that year. And this week I got to relive the roots of my former radio program with flying colors.
They are still as rocking, raunchy, country-fried and country-sweet as they ever were-- except now the entire crowd knows the words by heart and some nutball fan has a “97” spray-painted on his hair to represent the number of happy hours he has graced the Mother Truckers with his presence. He is more than happy to provide the band with a tray of drink treats. Bottoms up people.
Both Josh and Teal write and sing the songs, with Josh adding a Hendrix flair to his solos (he sometimes plays while laying on his back) and with Teal backing up on rhythm guitar or ukulele. Danny G held solid bass, as did the guest drummer I witnessed that night (Dan Thompson had another engagement-- was it with Stone Temple Pilots?) The showstopper was the soulful Billie Joe Shaver cover “When I get My Wings”, and happy was I to hear my own favorite, the harmonies of the wintry “Broke Not Broken”. But if there is any song that sums up the Mother Truckers Happy Hour experience, it’s the group sing-a-long “Let’s All Go To Bed”. The band hosted several guests that night whose names I did not discern-- a fiddler who added some western swing to the mix and a blues guitar player who brought us to an electric delta. The encore was “the ultimate fuck-around jam” (as Josh put it) with additional harmonica-- a blend of a Guns N’ Roses cover and a Beatles cover (and one other cover that eludes me… hey, it was happy hour..!)
As originally confirmed, they fucking rock. Now, like I saw on a bootleg t-shirt: Go truck yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment