Matt Benz writes:
> Interesting: BR5, who seem to have more than a little
>rockabilly in their sound, esp on the last album, does ok with
>the modern country biz, whereas the Derailers have been
>drawing rockabilly fans while sticking to a more traditional
>country sound, and getting ignored by the modern country biz.
>That's the way it seems from here, anyway. I'm probably wrong,
>and might still be on a PBR drunk right this damn minute......
I've seen BR5-49 a total of five times - three times in Boston
clubs, once in a Northampton club, and most recently over the summer at a
free performance in Central Park - and the group pulled in a good number
of rockabilly fans at the Boston performances I saw, though not nearly as
many at the Noho show (which was a typical Iron Horse yuppie audience,
for the most part). Can't be sure about the Central Park show, since
there were about 4 or 5 thousand people there. The pompadours and Betty
Page hairdos tended to get lost in the sea of faces. I think they
certainly have their fans on the rockabilly scene, though with the group
being on Arista it's considerably more appropriate to market them
primarily to a country audience (though the Albini sessions were clearly
an attempt to market the group to the rock crowd).
As for the Derailers, sure, they attract a lot of rockabilly fans,
but so do Wayne Hancock and Dale Watson. The vast majority of rockabilly
fans I know like country music; some like it quite a bit, indeed. They
just dislike most of what gets on the radio as much as anyone else here.
But give them a local country show like BR5-49, Wayne the Train, the
Derailers, Dale Watson, etc. and they'll usually turn out in droves.
I've seen the Derailers play the occasional rockabilly-type number,
by the way, though it's not as big a part of their sound as it is with
BR5-49.
--Jon Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wollaston, Massachusetts
