OK, time for a trip in the way-back machine, back to a time when we were youths and just finding ourselves, musically speaking.Curiously enough, a part of our musical identity was forged on the back of our ejection from the Methodist Church, which occurred in the eighth grade after we asked some apparently impertinent questions about the creation of the universe.
This would have been the mid-1960s, about 10 years after Elvis first swiveled his pelvis on the Ed Sullivan show. Elvis was cool, especially for a Mississippi boy like me, but he wasn't the only thing dad listened to on Sunday mornings. We also got a heavy dose of Willie Nelson, who was considered a renegade back then, and a country crooner named Ray Price.
Ray had a smooth, rich voice that eschewed the pre-rock warbles of Elvis. My dad could mimic ol' Ray pretty well, but he could also sound like Elvis, too, if he stuck to the hymns, which Elvis did a bang-up job on. So instead of getting the latest updates from the Methodists, we pumped up the volume and bellowed away to Elvis, Willie and Ray. There was also some Dean Martin in there, but we try not to think about that.
When my dad died a few years ago and we were thinking about the funeral, one song I thought dad would have liked to have heard was Ray's version of "For the Good Times," which was penned by Kris Kristofferson. Ultimately, we just had some instrumental music, so I quietly sang a verse to dad the night before, when we received all the well-wishers at the funeral home.
"Let's just be glad
We had some time to spend together
There's no need to watch the bridges
That we're burning ... for the good times."
I really thought that might be the end of any interaction between Ray and us, but lookie here! "Ray Price to Play Wilma Theater - April 19." That's on a piece of paper sitting right here on our desk!
Now, Ray was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame about 10 years ago, and he's spent most of the last 20 years or so running and performing at his own personal theater in Branson, Mo.
But now he's got a new album out with Willie and Merle Haggard, so I guess he feels he's gotta hit the road again. We're not huge fans of these older guys - he's 81! - making these nostalgia tours, but if it makes folks feel better to rummage around in their musical pasts, there's certainly no harm. (See Rolling Stones.)
You can see Ray Price on Thursday, April 19, at the Wilma Theatre. Tickets are $35. Call 888-MONTANA or order online at www.griztix.com. The show starts at 8 p.m. with warm-up act Don White, a singer-songwriter from Oklahoma.
BUSY BUSY BUSY
OK, we're gonna have to be sort of hit-and-run on the highlights this week, as there's just too much good music to get to. We'll stick to our day-by-day chronology for those of you who are easily confused about which day it is, but don't think that we're prioritizing based on quality.
If listening to ol' Ray isn't really your gig, you might wander over to the Badlander (formerly Hammerjack's) for a benefit show for the Poverello Center, Missoula's emergency homeless shelter. A trio of good local bands - The Flying Rickshaw, Arrows to the Sun and The TurnOffs - will kick up the noise. We especially like Arrows to the Sun, and the $7 admission seems more than reasonable. You'll be doing something good and get some fine music in return. Tickets for the Thursday show will be sold at the door and the show starts at 9 p.m.
Friday, April 20, offers up Casey Neill and the Norway Rats, a show that marks the end of the Missoula Folklore Society's concert season. Neill's been to Missoula before, and he's now hauling his band, which hails from Portland.
It's a wonder to us that someone as good as Neill is still playing small venues like the Crystal, but his misfortune is to our benefit. Neill's last work, "Brooklyn Bridge," is all over the map, from indie to Celtic, but it's mostly solid Americana, and he's a top-flight storyteller.
Opening for Neill will be Montana's own Stacy Rock, who now lives in New York City, where she acts and sings and sounds like Tori Amos singing Tom Waits' tunes. By this, we mean she's dang good!
Neill and Rock play the Crystal on Friday, April 20, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance at Rockin Rudy's or $10 at the door. As always, there's a $2 discount for members of the folklore society as well as UM students.
Finally, if you're in the Bitterroot Valley on Friday night, you could check out the CD release party for Joan Zen's "Youniverse." Joan - real name Deborah Hicks - plays the Bitter Root Brewery in Hamilton from 6 to 8:30 p.m. It's free!
Joan has a jazzy thing going, with elements of reggae and funk thrown in. She's got some good local talent on the record, including David Horgan from the Big Sky Mudflaps and the Bitterroot's own Huey Lewis, who blows the harp on one tune.
MOVING ON TO SATURDAY
Best band name of the week goes, hands down, to Enter the Haggis, a band of Celtic rockers from Toronto. Obviously, no one would willingly enter a haggis, but the band is a significant improvement over the Scottish culinary "delight." Their fans are called "Haggis Heads," and they're wild about a brand of music that fuses the traditional sounds of the Chieftains to the modern strains of folks like Elvis Costello.
Enter the Haggis officially entered the Realm of Mass Acceptance when the band made a St. Paddy's Day appearance on Live with Regis and Kathy Lee. Eeeuuuuuwwwww! The band plays the Badlander on Saturday, April 21, at 9 p.m. It's $7 to get in the door.
On the west side of downtown, you can check out Seaweed Jack at the Elks Club at 10 p.m. Although we tend to stay home on Saturday evenings and shoot hoops with the neighborhood kids, if we did go out, we would have a tough choice to make between the Haggis and Jack. Ordinarily, we'd go with the Celtic lads, as it's in the blood.
But Seaweed Jack is surprising enough to perhaps lure us away. These Gonzaga boys might actually make us rethink our ban on anything related to Spokane, a town that sucks so badly that, well, it's like Great Falls West. Seaweed Jack's press kit describes the music as a fusion of indie rock, blues and jazz, but a better way to think about it might be pirate music for the 21st century, replete with rattling chains, a huge drum and lyrics that would be at home in any psychedelic sea shanty.
The Elks is one weird place, and Seaweed Jack will only up the weirdness quotient Saturday night.
YET ANOTHER GOOD CAUSE
Last winter, Tim and Dawn Ishler's house burned down. That was bad enough, but worse was the fact that Dawn died in the fire. Tim has been a fixture in the Missoula music scene for three decades, and musicians are coming to his aid Sunday with a benefit concert on Sunday afternoon/evening at the Elks Club.
Admission is whatever you think is appropriate, and all the money will go to the Ishler family. Tim himself will play with a group calling itself The River Road, which is a combination of Michael (Purington) and the Messengers and Kenny and Tenley Field, of Hothouse Tamales fame.
The show will start at 2 p.m. with music by the Old Timers, followed by the Woodpickers at 4 and then the Frederico Brothers. The River Road takes the stage at 7:30 p.m.
Good music for a good cause. Hard to beat on a Sunday evening.
Michael Moore is filling in for Joe Nickell, who's having a baby any day now. Go Joe and Dalynn!
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