 Advance
Ticket" $18.00 Door - $23.00
Doors open at 6 PM for jamming and show begins at
7 PM.
Artist
Website
Combining the kick and exuberance of youth with
the finesse and style of musicians twice their ages,
King Wilkie is fast becoming a major force in the
Americana/roots music sweepstakes.
With BROKE--their first disc for premier bluegrass
imprint Rebel Records-they display a hard-charging
mix of sublime, overlooked chestnuts, genre standards,
and a half-dozen jaw-dropping, in-the-tradition
originals.
Based in storied Charlottesville, Virginia, King
Wilkie is a sextet of young turks (ages 21 to 26)
who inject beyond-their-years chops and the knowing
interplay of savvy veterans with vibrant, electrifying
energy that spikes the punch of the form's time-honored
recipes.
And no, King Wilkie is NOT another one of those
tired aggregations of cynical dilettantes who've
littered the scene of late with plugged-in, cranked-up
novelty takes on bluegrass; their love of and respect
for the music is deep and unmistakable.
But--at the other end of the spectrum-- love and
respect in Americana too often turn into the dreaded
'reverence,' taking the joy, the life--even the
AIR--out of the music, reducing it to some kind
of dusty museum relic. And it's hard to believe
that the likes of Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley or
Charlie and Ira Louvin ever dreamed that embalming
the music in order to save it would in any way be
preferable to reducing it to low comedy.
The sweet spot, of course, lies in between those
extremes, and that's exactly where King Wilkie lives.
Taking their name from Bill Monroe's favorite horse,
the boys in King Wilkie eschew needless showboating
and stylistic tweaking, instead allowing their razor-sharp
musicianship, and edgy, passionate harmonies to
inject timeless themes of love (won and lost), loneliness,
spirituality (and crippling lack thereof) and death
with a freshness and energy that's as vital and
relevant as any cutting-edge indie rockers could
deliver.
The seeds of the band were germinated in Ohio in
2000. College pals Ted Pitney and Reid Burgess took
in a bluegrass festival and, transported by what
they saw and heard, they immediately thereafter
set about immersing themselves in all things bluegrass.
Upon graduating in 2001, the duo moved to a farmhouse
outside Charlottesville and began recruiting musicians
from across the country.
The resulting band is firmly planted in bluegrass
soil, but the boys don't live in a vacuum--their
take on traditional music is seasoned by the dynamism
of the various member's outside influences, with
favorites including such disparate acts as The White
Stripes, The Byrds, Gillian Welch and even some
paint-stripping hard rockers.
King Wilkie cut their indie debut, TRUE SONGS,
as a quintet in 2003. That homemade biscuit, along
with a series of live performances that repeatedly
underscored the band's ability to grab and take
over diverse audiences caught the ear and attention
of Rebel Records.
Recorded at Overdub Lane Studios in Raleigh, NC
by veteran producer Bob Carlin (John Hartford),
BROKE is bracketed by high-stepping instrumental
takes on Ralph Lewis' "40 West." In between,
there are knockout covers of Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue
Yodel #7," Governor Jimmie Davis' "Where
The Old Red River Flows," "Sparkling Brown
Eyes" (a hit for Wanda Jackson AND Webb Pierce),
the Monroe Brothers' "Some Glad Day, and the
ageless traditional, "Little Birdie."
Each of the above is a gem-cut beauty, but it's
the stunning originals that serve clear notice that
these boys have something truly special going on.
Finely-drawn, honest, humble and shamelessly irony-free,
the four tunes by Ted Pitney and two by Reid Burgess
are sparkling examples of down-home tunesmithing
that are sure to have even the sagest musicologists
scratching their heads and scurrying for their reference
tomes.
Classic, evocative themes are wed to quicksilver
melodies on the prodigal homecoming of "It's
Been A Long Time," the heartbreak of "Brokedown
and Lonesome" and "All Night Blues,"
the tender, aching Gothic tragedy of "Lee and
Paige," the gospel-flavored, bittersweet "Drifting
Away" and the brutal, yet darkly comic kiss-off
"Goodbye So Long.".
There you have it, folks: clearwater pickin' and
high lonesome singin'--all presented with grace,
flair and enough juice to launch one of them rocket
ships.
|
