Dusk Devils at the Dome: Hurricane Relief Part 4 - By N.L. Belardes
One of the bands from the Hurricane Relief Show I most anticipated was Bakersfield’s rockabilly/country band The Dusk Devils. I’d been hearing about Jenny Angel since I began writing about the local music scene back in February. I have surfed their web site, listened to some of their tunes, even got a few invites to shows over the past few months, including one to the Link Wray gig at Fishlips. I didn’t make it because of a Latino show over at Chencho’s that I’d promised to attend with LIKHY2 and Delux.
Yet, I kept an eye on The Dusk Devils, kept up with their shenanigans in and out of Bakersfield in Jenny’s tell-all blog( read about her take on the Dusk Devil's Dome performance). Why was I curious? Because country music is sparse in Bakersfield? Oh certainly. It’s a dying breed of local Bakersfield musician. They’re still around, but sparse… there’s Slim the Drifter and some Buckaroos, some alt country in Norfolk, Dante Esperanza and Jimmy Holliday’s Sioux City Sarsaparilla. But country bands? Stampede, and some rockabilly and psychobilly... One country boy told me though, “That rockabilly. That ain’t no country…” Is that true?
I keep asking myself where country had gone and disappeared to. After careful research I realized the country movement isn’t in Bakersfield with the big Bakersfield Sound and Buck Owens, et. al. Oh there’s country music at Buck’s Crystal Palace and his big crystal horse getty’app’n to folks eaten their chicken and biscuits. But then that’s country music with a strong hint of nostalgia: there’s pictures on the wall, a museum, statues of dead country stars whose music still lives... There’s a lot of famous acts who tour through the venue, but up-and-coming folks from the streets of Bakersfield? Fat chance. I don’t hear but of just a few bands...
Mostly the burgeoning movements are farther south of the Los Padres, where traveling hip country cat Dale Watson makes appearances. I saw him years ago blast his sounds in a little Honky Tonk style bar at Arizona Charlie’s off the Las Vegas Strip. And oh there’s the many many Los Angeles country bands in the New Nashville West, a landscape filled with country shows, country radio, alt country bands by the bushel, and even Merle Jagger, an instrumental variation of old country TV radio station hour riffs, all created in a neo-cowpunk flavor meant to tease the what was left of the old country heart of Bakersfield, ala the Old Nashville West…
I’d met mutual friends of Jenny Angel, had a conversation with Fat Katt about her. “I told her to go with Jenny Angel,” he said in the N.L. Belardes studio. “She needed a big name…” Les Paw was there, hip as can be, his tattoos staring from his rockabilly hepcat style. Really, I had been wondering just how good The Dusk Devils were. I could tell Jenny was well networked with the country/rockabilly folk in California and in the European country sector—high up in the Scandinavian townships and cities. But in Bakersfield…? Remember, a lot of folks here don’t even care about their own roots. Maybe that’s why country music is scarce in Bakersfield.
Now here was The Dusk Devils jamming their country/rockabilly covers in the Dome during the Hurricane Relief Show. What I expected was just what I got: Jenny Angel dressed to the hilt in green, full-on with a big green feathery boa to accent her Betty Page sweet rockabilly hair and smile; her lips painted luscious—here was one of the premiere female rockers in a town dominated by male performers of working class angst. She’s right in there with the gals from Three Chord Whore, Rocky Nash, and Nico Rhodes of the Dalloways. Only here’s a frontwoman with a stylish hip keyboard attitude that growls as much as sings…
Here’s also a band who needs to perform more original songs. Why? Because they’re talented enough to do so; because they have a great image, though one that could use the guys getting a little more stylishly clothed rockabilly in tune with Jenny Angel’s darling refreshing rockabilly look.
My infamous Jenny Angel "Legs" photo...
The Dusk Devils took the stage and I went down to the front. I watched the young tough kids swing dance, two-step and generally get down to the sounds of rockabilly/country. Kids know good music; some of them do know the roots of Bakersfield; they could feel the heart and soul in each Jenny Angel growl. They, like me, appreciated the musicianship in country guitar riffs and picking that had metal boys wishing they’d taken a class in country blues… Yeah, the Dusk Devils deserve to be a house band around town somewhere, in some cool steakhouse, and that’s because they’re just as lively as Fatt Katt and the Vonzippers who frequent that big crystal horse hidden along the Buck City freeway; only Jenny Angel, she’s a little more good lookin’ than that ‘ol Fatt Katt… now sing me the country blues…
Yet, I kept an eye on The Dusk Devils, kept up with their shenanigans in and out of Bakersfield in Jenny’s tell-all blog( read about her take on the Dusk Devil's Dome performance). Why was I curious? Because country music is sparse in Bakersfield? Oh certainly. It’s a dying breed of local Bakersfield musician. They’re still around, but sparse… there’s Slim the Drifter and some Buckaroos, some alt country in Norfolk, Dante Esperanza and Jimmy Holliday’s Sioux City Sarsaparilla. But country bands? Stampede, and some rockabilly and psychobilly... One country boy told me though, “That rockabilly. That ain’t no country…” Is that true?
I keep asking myself where country had gone and disappeared to. After careful research I realized the country movement isn’t in Bakersfield with the big Bakersfield Sound and Buck Owens, et. al. Oh there’s country music at Buck’s Crystal Palace and his big crystal horse getty’app’n to folks eaten their chicken and biscuits. But then that’s country music with a strong hint of nostalgia: there’s pictures on the wall, a museum, statues of dead country stars whose music still lives... There’s a lot of famous acts who tour through the venue, but up-and-coming folks from the streets of Bakersfield? Fat chance. I don’t hear but of just a few bands...
Mostly the burgeoning movements are farther south of the Los Padres, where traveling hip country cat Dale Watson makes appearances. I saw him years ago blast his sounds in a little Honky Tonk style bar at Arizona Charlie’s off the Las Vegas Strip. And oh there’s the many many Los Angeles country bands in the New Nashville West, a landscape filled with country shows, country radio, alt country bands by the bushel, and even Merle Jagger, an instrumental variation of old country TV radio station hour riffs, all created in a neo-cowpunk flavor meant to tease the what was left of the old country heart of Bakersfield, ala the Old Nashville West…
I’d met mutual friends of Jenny Angel, had a conversation with Fat Katt about her. “I told her to go with Jenny Angel,” he said in the N.L. Belardes studio. “She needed a big name…” Les Paw was there, hip as can be, his tattoos staring from his rockabilly hepcat style. Really, I had been wondering just how good The Dusk Devils were. I could tell Jenny was well networked with the country/rockabilly folk in California and in the European country sector—high up in the Scandinavian townships and cities. But in Bakersfield…? Remember, a lot of folks here don’t even care about their own roots. Maybe that’s why country music is scarce in Bakersfield.
Now here was The Dusk Devils jamming their country/rockabilly covers in the Dome during the Hurricane Relief Show. What I expected was just what I got: Jenny Angel dressed to the hilt in green, full-on with a big green feathery boa to accent her Betty Page sweet rockabilly hair and smile; her lips painted luscious—here was one of the premiere female rockers in a town dominated by male performers of working class angst. She’s right in there with the gals from Three Chord Whore, Rocky Nash, and Nico Rhodes of the Dalloways. Only here’s a frontwoman with a stylish hip keyboard attitude that growls as much as sings…
Here’s also a band who needs to perform more original songs. Why? Because they’re talented enough to do so; because they have a great image, though one that could use the guys getting a little more stylishly clothed rockabilly in tune with Jenny Angel’s darling refreshing rockabilly look.
My infamous Jenny Angel "Legs" photo...
The Dusk Devils took the stage and I went down to the front. I watched the young tough kids swing dance, two-step and generally get down to the sounds of rockabilly/country. Kids know good music; some of them do know the roots of Bakersfield; they could feel the heart and soul in each Jenny Angel growl. They, like me, appreciated the musicianship in country guitar riffs and picking that had metal boys wishing they’d taken a class in country blues… Yeah, the Dusk Devils deserve to be a house band around town somewhere, in some cool steakhouse, and that’s because they’re just as lively as Fatt Katt and the Vonzippers who frequent that big crystal horse hidden along the Buck City freeway; only Jenny Angel, she’s a little more good lookin’ than that ‘ol Fatt Katt… now sing me the country blues…
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Tuesday, September 27, 2005.
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