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King
Wilkie
supported by
Belle Monroe & Her Brewglass Boys and The
Earl Brothers
at The Makeout
Room, San Francisco, May 2004
  By Jean & Derek
Brandon
King Wilkie | The Earl Brothers King Wilkie Band review by Shae Quillen
Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys BMBGB opened the evening, battling valiantly against very poor acoustics and bad lighting (details) as they kicked off with upbeat number Katie Daley. They continued in a similar vein and played a great set of mainly exciting numbers. We have to be careful what we say here because Belle is related to us, but sometimes we wondered who was in charge...
Visit Belle Monroe & Her Brewglass Boys
In contrast to their gig at the Hotel Utah (click for report) the band was actually visible this time, even if indistinctly, as in the very poor lighting the backdrop appeared dark red, not black as at the Hotel Utah! A word of advice to all performers: check out in advance the lighting and colour of the stage backdrop (especially those who favour dark clothing colours) to avoid becoming invisible! The Earl Brothers (Bobby Earl and John McKelvy, plus varying mando & bass players) are known for their straight traditional style. On the plus side they write most of their own material, but the downside of this is that they can all sound the same, and the EB's suffer from this weakness in our opinion - something not helped by the dry, unexciting presentation.
This hard-punching, real-bluegrass band comprises Reid Burgess (mandolin / lead vocals), Ted Pitney (lead guitar / lead vocals), Abe Spear (banjo), John McDonald (rhythm guitar), Nick Reeb (fiddle / harmony vocals) and Drew Breakney (bass). Anyone naming their band after Bill Monroe's horse had better be sure they can deliver the goods and we think we can safely say that this six-piece outfit does just that! Great sounds came from this young, Charlottesville Virginia-based, very stylish outfit, whose oldest member (in 2004) is 26! They work tightly together round one mike really well and look good, with lots of stage presence. All six are visually very exciting, with excellent dynamics and vocal style.
Their first number, Yeeeehaw!, had lots of style, light and shade. Drifting Away and I'm Just a Stranger allowed the mandolin player to show off his powerful yodelling - great stuff and definitely Bluegrass. All Night Blues was a real barnburner and a wonderful, bluesey intro on fiddle introduced In The Pines. King Wilkie presented a good balance of material which included lots of traditional material plus self-penned stuff such as Long, Long Road, which is very much within the BG tradition.
The forceful fiddling resulted in something we've never seen before. Near the end of the set the fiddler Nick broke a string, so mandolin and guitar continued the performance as a duo. Then the band rejoined for the final medley: the gospel song After A While, a beautiful rendering of the sad, old ballad I Never Will Marry and Little Birdie, finishing with a red-hot rendition of Fire On The Mountain (a nostalgic song for us - see footnote). Their encore, Following the Highway Home, had outstanding banjo and fiddle breaks. The audience wanted more, but it was time to close, regrettably. If this band stays together it'll soon be a force to be reckoned with, in our opinion. Throughout the set the vocals were solid with superb breaks from all instruments but the fiddle player was awesome!
For a full appreciation of this band check out the 1- hour concert of
Joan & Peter Wernick 1/3 followed by King Wilkie 2/3. Click for
the
Bad acoustics,
bad lighting Nostalgic footnote We can't resist commenting: Years ago we used to play for fun in (Roman) Chester's historic-by-UK-standards Bear and Billet pub with a great fiddle player called Gerry Pugh. However, they barred us because every time we played Fire On The Mountain the ceiling light fitting fell crashing to the floor. Some say the place is haunted, but we'll never know for sure... but if it is now it's probably Gerry! Jean & Derek Brandon, Chester
|
Tonight the band comprised Belle Monroe (guitar / lead & harmony vocals),
Diana Greenberg (fiddle / harmony vocals), Mitch Polzac (banjo / lead vocals)
of The Royal Deuces subbed for regular banjo player Jordan Klein,
who was in Israel., Tom Drohan (bass), Ted Silverman (mandolin / lead &
harmony vocals) and Rick hendricks (Dobro / lead & harmony vocals).
Amongst
their offerings were Nobody's Love Is Like Mine (with high gear banjo
from Mitch), Greenville Trestle High, Clinch Mountain Backstep (another
great Mitch contribution) and Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms (with a
powerful vocal from Belle Monroe). Feel It In My Bones was a self-penned
song from mandolin player Teddy Silverman.
Gillian
Welch's Tear My Still House Down was followed by The Crawdad Song
and Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me. It was a good solid set from
this popular and entertaining San Francisco-based Bay Area Bluegrass Band.
"We're going to sing a chicken song," (their intro), "A Drinking Song", "A
Murder Song"... Good musicianship but, with their very traditional introspective
delivery, this band didn't ring our bells. However, to be perfectly fair,
the crowd at the Makeout Room loved them and gave them a great reception.
We haven't heard their CDs, which can be very different to stage performance,
which is expected to be entertaining. However, Bobby Earl send us a reference
to their latest - Whiskey, Women & Death (on which all but Cluck
Old Hen are their own work), which you can hear
All that - and flying a balloon at the same
time?
Abe Spear on brilliant banjo break!
we
have come across - something absolutely not helped by the awful lighting,
which even included a spotlighted ballroom rotating mirror-ball. It looked
more like a Christmas party than a gig venue. If only the spotlights had
been on the performers... and the soundman had been at his desk all the
time...