Imagine, if you will, an archaic square dancehall. Got it? Now, take this clogging establishment and try to imagine a total retro revamp--shag carpet adorning the walls, black and neon checkered floors, strobes, disco balls, and (the coup de grace) stacks of hay surrounding the dance floor. The kick your heels mentality would still be there, but there would be a subtle injection of electronic dub.       

  "Take your partner, round and round. Shake that rump, it's time to get down," the caller would belt out with a fiddle on his shoulder and a platform shoe keeping the beat.        

A downright uncanny fusion, you declare? Impossible? Most assuredly. This image will always be a hopeful figment of the author's imagination. However, I have found a band that fulfills this unlikely image.  Sylva, North Carolina's Smoky Mountain Drum and Bass is ... well ... perhaps the most original band I have ever encountered. I kid you not. A simple description is futile. I hate to even begin to describe them because the minds behind this blend of opposite spectrums are well versed in the dichotomies of music that matters. My (meek) interpretation is a barnyard gone wrong. I call it mountain music flirting with the underbelly of electronic sampling. Better yet, it is a cultural lesson in modern art.        

"I think juxtaposition is common in modern art," said Jonathan Wertheim, bass player and sampler for SMD&B. "The music is kind of like Dada to me."        

Dada?        

"It was a based art movement in France and Germany. It pre-dated surrealism. It was essentially a collage of several different arts," Wertheim said.        

Jonathan is a music student of the highest order. Performing professionally since the age of 14, Jonathan is also a singer/songwriter, found-sound artist, and author. He's performed with several other bands, including the Chicago-based Grendel. His studies included recording engineering in Arizona, and he worked as an engineer for Queen City Media. The more I conversed with Jonathan, the more I realized that the band is not some fly-by-night trend.        

"When you try to second guess trends, you're begging to fail," said Wertheim. "You can only incorporate what you like ... your band will not make it in time to ride that particular wave."        

Jonathan's cerebral counterpart is Scott Denmon, who plays drums, electronic percussion, and sampler. Scott has been playing professionally since 15, and he has his own project studio called Jive Tonic. Alongside Jonathan, Scott has been working under the created name of Unscented Muzak. Denmon is a sheer preservationist. He respects old time with unrelenting fervor and knows that it can do well on its own. He's just promoting some added features.       

  "The band is a huge conceptual thing," said Scott. "I think one of the reasons Sylvans are buying into us is because it's like the rejuvenation of a town's [Sylva] old sections. It's kind of like SPIR (Sylva Partners in Renewals) giving Main Street a facelift. We need to protect what we've got, and that means holding on to depth and tradition. We don't need to preserve like Cherokee, NC. It's not real. We don't want the plastic tomahawks from Taiwan."        

In fact, SPIR has taken a liking to SMD&B's outlook.        

"We are kind of like them because we both want to keep the area booming without losing our identity. That's why SPIR is buying into us. It's authentic."        

In order to have a classy preservation, one needs some polished "relics". Enter banjo master Henry Queen and fiddler Ian Moore. Both players are steeped in mountain music, and their style has somehow fit snugly in the glossy confines of modern music. This union between electric and back porch picking began about 10 years ago.       

  "I moved up to Cullowhee, NC [home of Western Carolina University] in 1989 and met Kyle Huff (the other guitarist for SMD&B)," said Brooks Butler, "guitar-spank" hero. Brooks is an extremely adept guitarist whose subtle leads have a way of taking over a room. He had already developed a musical relationship with Scott and Jonathan that dated back to high school. Like his chums, Brooks has a deep level of respect for the continuing evolution of music.       

  "Kyle and I formed Jupiter's Eye, and it was during that time that Kyle befriended Henry Queen and started picking with him," said Butler. "Our next bands were Space Monkey (Scott Denmon was a member) and Strobelight Cockfight. Henry used to pick a lot with both of these bands."       

  Brooks left Cullowhee in the late to pursue a graduate degree in Spanish at the University of Tennessee. About that time, Jonathan moved up to Cullowhee and Scott began working with Kyle at the Sylva Herald.  These fragmented musical experimentations finally congealed when Scott and Jon met Ian Moore. The fiddler was a perfect find. Ian's most recent stint was performing last year with the national touring company of the Broadway musical "Footloose". His Irish traditional country rock-n-roll band, Court Square, was a force in the Queens, N.Y., Irish scene in the 90's. His cultural validity came courtesy of performing for years in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Presently, Ian is the man to go to for old time string band sessions in Sylva.       

  The only thing now missing from the pick/mix circle was an intended conglomeration of old time and the sounds of the big city.       

  "We were able to drag Ian and Henry over to the studio," said Jonathan. "Scott and I scrambled around and got some beats together... we plugged it in and rolled tape."       

  The studio jam session proved to be the harbinger of things to come.       

  "I looked up and everybody was smiling ... it was the sheer goofiness of the thing,"  Jonathan said. "It had been a long time since I'd had fun in the recording studio."       

  After those sessions, Scott and Jonathan knew there was a fat diamond in the old-time coal, Henry Queen. Unless you call a boulder your home, the Queen name should be recognizable. Henry has suckled on the banjo's teat all his life, and the stringy nutrition has served him well. Henry won the claw-hammer banjo competition at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival at the Asheville Civic Center.  Furthermore, he was invited onstage by Doc Watson at Merle Fest to play a song he wrote about his granddaddy. Henry also expressed his adept knowledge to willing pickers by being part of the Visiting Artists Program from 1986 to 1993. The highest award came when he and the Queen Family won the Mountain Heritage Day Award in 1999 at Western Carolina University. Essentially, Henry is a key player in the firm backbone of Western Norh Carolina's rich traditional scene.        

"We're really lucky to be working with Henry," said Jonathan. "He is doing more than anybody I know to preserve that music. He has taken us under his wing. He is what makes us authentic. I think it would be fake without him."       

  Denmon concurred with high levels of glee.       

  "Henry is on the far end of the spectrum from Jonathan and me. He's a porch picker and is our true-blue guy. Thanks to Ian and Henry, the idea is far greater than we realized."       

  Say, Henry, are your ears en fuego? My desire to talk to one Henry Queen was irresistible. I wanted the man's take on this new-fangled hybrid. Ah, to pick the brains of a picker.      

   The voice on the other end of the phone was subdued at first. Through some tender cajoling on my part, I got Henry to describe his take on SMD&B.      

   "It's pretty much the same music I'm used to, it's just sort of a blend ... the situation is real good for me ... our style works well with any crowd. It covers the spectrum and can deal with any age." After a few quiet, thoughtful moments, Henry added, "I like to see people dance and enjoy the music."       

  Any distractions?       

  "We get pretty loud sometimes. It's not so bad. The bigger the crowd, the higher the volume."       

  The epidemic of SMD&B is highly contagious. The bug first materialized at Crossroads (a music hall in Sylva) last December. The show was a double bill. It featured the K-bots (another ongoing project that features SMD&B members Wertheim, Butler, Denmon and percussion and washboard specialist Eric Mrozkowski) and SMD&B.     

   "I can honestly say that the initial crowd response sealed it," said Wertheim. "Everybody was sweating and freaking out. By the time we went into the second song, we knew we had to have a band."     

    "The crowd reaction floored us," said Brooks. "The dancing hall was packed ... We pretty much stole the show from the K-bots."       

  Talk swept like an information cyclone around Jackson County. SMD&B shows began to crop up. The annual Greening Up the Mountains Festival on Earth Day in downtown was a big success. The big attention getter came with the Fourth of July festival. The estimation by day's end was 10,000 (no, this is not a typo). Pretty heady stuff for a band in its crawling stages.       

  "The good thing about SMD&B is that it appeals to everyone from 8 to 80. It's an experience for me because I have never performed for the young or old. Here I am at the festival handing out sparklers and squirt guns. No one ever left. You expect a few people to leave during the show, but the crowd just kept getting thicker. I kept expecting someone to come up and say, 'All right, you guys are busted,'" said Jonathan.      

   Tsk, tsk, Jonathan. I don't think you are aware of the refreshing nature of this band.  The self-titled mini-LP demonstrates why SMD&B has no limit on sky miles. The opening cut, Wild Bill Jones, was recorded at Scott's Jive Tonic Studio. The track begins with a trip-hop beat that suddenly melts into an oozing swirl of strings. The voice provides a dark, haunting montage of Wild Bill. My ears had a few moments of adjustment as I tried to comprehend the merging of the old guard with the technological infant. Tracks two through six were recorded live at Crossroads. The eerie traditional In the Pines takes on an even darker setting in this rendition. The vocal wailings and orchestral musings seem to have emerged from a swamp of funk.  There's nothing like a little modern-day boogie to light a fire under the feet of an old timer. Do yourself a favor and hunt down this rare jewel. It's an indication of far greater things to come.      

   The most prominent date was a gig at Bele Chere. The band performed on Wall Street on Saturday, July 29. "I feel we are perfect for Bele Chere," said Jonathan. "If I wasn't in this band, I would be excited to see them."

        Think of it as a lesson in compromise. Who ever thought that Blackberry Blossom would be riding the tidal wave of the future? Samplers and pickers unite! A new sound is here, and the evil one syllable word  "trend" has no coattails to latch on to.

To find out more about Smokey Mountain Drum and Bass, visit http://www.cullowheecafe.com/smkymtndrum-n-bass.htm

Blueground Undergrass
Memphis, TN, July 28th

By Chip Schramm

North Georgia bluegrass fusion troubadours Blueground Undergrass paid their third visit to Newby's in Memphis, Tennessee on Friday July 28th.  Fresh off a tour of the West Coast, Blueground was sporting a new rhythm section and a new bus.  In a bizarre catastrophe, the band had an accident in their old bus while on the way to the Oregon County Faire, the last stop on that portion of their tour.  The bus and various instruments were destroyed, but miraculously none of the band members were seriously injured.  The symbolism of that accident seems to parallel the musical road traveled by the band from Atlanta.  Though they lost a member here and there as they overcame growing pains in their early development, Blueground has pushed onward unscathed and undeterred.

J. Vic Stafford is the new drummer.  His college buddy and newest band member, Kyle Spark, joined him on bass this evening.  At first I was unsure of how well the new band members were working in the lineup.  For a few minutes at the beginning of the show, Stafford looked almost like he was pressured to keep up with the fury of the Mosier brothers' picking.  Once he settled in, however, he found his place with Spark as the rhythmic foundation of the band.  Spark is definitely quite a find for BGUG.  His improvisational skills and ability to shift quickly to match changes in the music were quite impressive.  There's no doubt that both of these guys will be more comfortable in the lineup as time progresses.

The show featured some staple tunes in the Blueground repertoire, but also had a few new treats thrown in.  Songs like A Farewell to Lemmings and Orange Blossom Spatial were played with the usual gusto, much to the delight of the high-stepping fans in Memphis on this evening.  The most surprising change in the sound of the band manifested itself in Mark Van Allen's vocals.  Van Allen has been known for his skills on pedal steel for many years, but he has moved closer to the microphone only recently.  He even sang lead on a couple of country-blues numbers.  It's All Your Fault was a humorous number, very similar in style to Wichita Lineman.  For some reason the goatee he's sporting seems to go well with his vocal presence.

Highlights of the evening were African Hillbilly and Deep Elem Blues.  The first is perhaps the band's most famous song, partially because they have it available for download on the Internet.  Like Death, which they also played at Newby's, Hillbilly gives the band plenty of room to jam and explore.  This is where Sparks' talents came to the forefront.  Songs like Deep Elem and I Know You Rider will always be fan favorites because of their association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, both influences of the band.  Overall Blueground Undergrass provided a barnful of entertainment in Memphis at the end of July.  As always, they can't come back to play often enough.

Galactic
Headliners Music Hall, Louisville, KY 8/10/00

by Tom Wilmes

"We'd like to thank everybody for bearing the heat with us tonight," said Galactic's singer and houseman, Theryl deClouet. "It feels good to bring the music back to the people."

Galactic has spent the better part of their summer  opening for dual-headliners Live and the Counting Crows during their tour of mid-western amphitheaters. But tonight, they were solo, and blowing off huge amounts of steam for the smaller, but appreciative crowd at Louisville's Headliners Music Hall.

It was hot. Really hot.

Drawing heavily from their recently released Late for the Future disc, which they rightfully promoted every chance they had (pick up a tee shirt too), the band kept things moving with the groove intensive sound that has made them one of New Orleans best kept secrets.

Galactic worked their way through  arrangements based heavily on rumbling blasts from Ben Ellman's bari-sax and punctuated with bursts of sonic fervor from guitarist Jeff Raines and bassist Robert Mercurio. Richard Vogel laid down fat organ fills and drummer Stanton Moore was solid as ever.

Then they descend into fusion-land with a cacophony of textured sound, heavy on the effects, and then gracefully tumble into the next tune. They mixed things up nicely by bringing deClouet out for the R&B flavored selections from Late for the Future.

In the end it was one sweltering party inside the music hall that night. But, ever the working band (They will spend September opening for Ben Harper), Galactic piled into their tour bus and sped down the road to spread their message of world-wide funkiness.

A Little Southern Flavor
Mike Farris (Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies) and Damon Johnson (Brother Cane)

review by Mike Jones

8/11/00    Hal & Mal's   Jackson, MS

I know some of you out there know about one of the best things to come out of Nashville known as the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies.  Some of you probably have even heard of Brother Cane as well.  On this night of their limited tour, the two singers from each band put on quite a show.

If you've ever heard the Wheelies, you know "the voice" behind their music.  The one that pours out passion and soul from a heart on fire and in love with music.  Mike Farris was clearly put on this earth to sing to us like he does because I've never seen anything like it or that could even compare to it. 

Farris played an hour long acoustic set with ex-Spoonful guitarist, Brent Woodard.  (Spoonful was another hot band out of Nashville that met a premature demise but all the members have moved on to other projects now.  Check out http://www.barejr.com and http://www.willhoge.com for more info there.)  They played about 10 songs total, ranging from new songs or at least songs that were new to me, as well as some classic Wheelie tunes.  Seeing Mike confined to a stool in front of a pair of microphones was amusing at times because if you've seen the Wheelies before, you know how Mike moves around all the time and just appears to have the music flowing through his body.  More than a few times, Mike began standing up on the stool, wanting to get up and move around. 

Finally, for his last song, he did it acapella plus the hand claps provided by himself and the crowd.  So he did get to show off some of that spirit that all Wheelie fans have come to appreciate.

Damon Johnson, of Brother Cane, also did an hour long set.  He played some tunes that were unreleased as well as the hits that Brother Cane had.  One song that he played, he announced to the crowd that none other than Stevie Nicks had recorded for a new album.  It was good to hear the voice of Brother Cane again, it's been about two years since they were dropped from their label and basically since they dropped of the planet.

The finale of the night featured both Farris and Johnson doing a few numbers together.  The first was Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Give Me Back My Bullets".  Taking in to consideration that these are both southern boys, playing in a southern town, you can imagine how much the crowd loved this.

While this is a fairly low-key tour, it is definitely one that should not be missed if it comes to your area.  There are four more dates on the mini-tour, all in September.  The 8th @ 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville - 9th @ The Bay in Chattanooga - 29th @ Crossroads Cafe in Huntsville - 30th @ Newby's in Memphis.  If you want to hear some wonderful acoustic versions of songs by the respective bands represented by these singers, make sure you catch one of these shows.  They are simply amazing!

Setlist for Mike Farris:

Jericho Time To Burn Sunshine Smile Gypsy Lullaby Hello From Venus Know Good One Big Drop Of Water Magnolia

Leaving Trunk ?(a capella song)?

*KING KONGA Newsflash*