(Jim #29) — I hadn’t heard of The Wilders, but a friend in Seattle tipped me off. “I’ve seen them twice and I think they’re my favorite band to see live,” she e-mailed me.
So I was passing by Old City Hall last night (Friday) and thought, “Well, I better at least check ‘em out.” The Kansas City quartet played a totally inspired version of honkytonkin’ country and bluegrass. It was another fabulous show presented by the Oaksong Music Society.
They had a quirky bit of outlaw to them with frontman Ike Sheldon in a dark suit and cowboy hat, looking like a Mennonite preacher who ditched it to become an Old West huckster.
Multi-instrumentalist Phil Wade sported a Junior Brown cowboy hat, played the crap out of everything he touched (dobro especially) and looked like he could ride a bull in the PRCA. Betse Ellis has a wonderful air about her and plays the kind of seat-of-your-skirt fiddle lines you want in a band like this. Nate Gawron holds it together with his bass, is a superb vocalist (both harmony and lead) and an excellent songwriter (along with Sheldon).
The band has great songs, harmonies, pickin’, spirit and style. Their CD “Someone’s Got to Pay” represents their live sound well and features a murder-ballad theme of “Sittin’ On a Jury” that runs through several songs (written by Wade). It’s a good mix of tunes and tones and I’m already crazy about Sheldon’s mournful title-track ballad.
The Wilders are my most recent discovery, but at the recent Strawberry Music Festival, I made some other key finds, including the acts Po’ Girl, J.J. Grey and Mofro and Mike Ferris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue.
All three of these acts soared in their live performances. I’ll be getting my hands on some of their recorded music soon to see how it stacks up.
Po’ Girl (a Canadian quartet featuring Allison Russell and Awna Teixeira, above) played an eclectic mix of folk that had a European texture mixed with smoky American jazz. It was almost obscene how many instruments these guys and gals pulled out and played exceptionally well.
J.J. Grey and his band are a monster soul/blues/rock outfit from Florida. Grey has a big soul voice, writes excellent songs and plays well on guitar, organ and harmonica. It was impossible not to dance to this great group.
Mike Ferris fell off the gospel tree and hit every branch. I’m not sure the last time I’ve heard a white guy sing with this much soul. Oh, yeah, now I remember, it was J.J. Grey. Anyway, Ferris has a nice story of returning from chemical dependency and booze to get his life on track through music and God.
I missed Chuck Prophet at Strawberry, but everyone said he was great. The known acts like Emmylou Harris, Tim O’Brien, Ricky Skaggs and Peter Rowan were all excellent.
Check out the Oaksong Society’s summer concert series (link above), because Rowan and the Waybacks are on there along with some other great acts. There’s a lot of super music to be had in the coming months.
[...] Here’s a link to Jim Dyar’s review of The Wilders’ performance in Redding, along with some commentary of his recent (read: wet) escapade at the Strawberry Music Festival over Memorial Day. [...]