originally posted to NUVO.net | Indy’s Alternative Voice
The temperature was well above 90 degrees by mid-morning. Charlie Daniels and his band were getting ready to play a Brickyard 400 pre-race gig at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008.
Daniels came on stage at noon that day and captured the sweaty crowd with 75 minutes of hits from the past 40 years, from “Uneasy Rider” to “The South’s Gonna Do It Again,” “Long Haired Country Boy” to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. The show (loud and arena-like in presentation) also reminded why Daniels is a country music legend – he commanded the stage with a catalog of songs any songwriter would envy, and was able to create a big-but-intimate show, cranking up the volume on his songs without losing their core.
concert previews
Todd Snider: Busy Man Comes to Bloomington
(originally written for NUVO.net (8.31.10)
I hate musical labels. But I can use them. I’d call Todd Snider a roots rocker, having seen him with his old band The Nervous Wrecks, all sweaty and rockin’. Call him folk, or a kind of Prine/Petty/Jerry Jeff Walker/Jagger hybrid. Some of those work for you?
Todd will perform at the 3rd annual Hillbilly Haiku Concert at the Upland Brewing Company in Bloomington, Indiana this Friday (September 3rd) at 6pm. TV Mike and the Scarecrows and The Elly Maze open.
The Hillbilly Haiku Americana Music Series is hosted by the Upland Brewing Co. to raise money for the Sycamore Land Trust. All proceeds from the concert’s ticket, food, and beverage sales benefit the Sycamore Land Trust, whose mission is to preserve the landscape of southern Indiana. Working with private landowners to protect their family heritage, SLT has conserved over 5,500 acres on more than 66 parcels and helped plant over 55,000 trees.
After he rolls out of town, Snider will head to the Americana Music Festival held in Nashville beginning September 8, and will fire up a group he is calling Todd Snider’s Rock & Roll Revue, featuring Jason D. Williams, Dan Baird and Friends.
BoDeans know the way to Indy
The BoDeans’ Friday show at the Vogue will be their one-millionth appearance in Indianapolis, as they are in town to play tunes from their ninth studio album, Mr. Sad Clown, released back in April.
OK. Not really. Yes, they are at the Vogue Friday, but have only played in our city 905,383 times since 1987. Every damn one of them a good show. Really. I’ve seen them so many times in the past 20 years – at the Vogue, or in Cincy at the Blue Note, or on a cold Monument Circle during Final Four weekend – and can’t remember walking away thinking that the band hadn’t worked hard at making a connection. The sound they make is unique. The new album is thoroughly BoDeans, and that’s why they survive.
We should be thankful there is a BoDeans; a band that rolls on despite just one (“Closer to Free”) song that could be considered a real hit. They have stayed true to their roots-rock and roll soul. Every show rocks, the audience sings, and guitars and drums are played loudly. Tell me what’s wrong with any of that?
Remembering the Elms before their farewell show
For their final show before the group disbands, The Elms have sold out Radio Radio this Friday night (July 30). The group that broke out of Seymour as a Christian band and went on to make vibrant, heartfelt and truly midwestern rock and roll is calling it quits for reasons a bit ambiguous, and finish their run with this final Indianapolis show.
According to their Facebook page, the show will be filmed in HD, using multiple cameras. Singer Owen Thomas writes on his blog that “we’re kicking around several ideas for the footage, which range from a complete concert film to a documentary about the cumulative 10-year experience of The Elms.”
There is a terrific blog by Dan Ficker at inreview.net where Thomas addresses questions surrounding the group breaking up. In the interview, The Elms’ lead singer said it was just a feeling that things should stop.
