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Flanfire (Duggan Flanakin) is bringing LIFE to Austin music -- and telling the world how sweet it is!
Friday, August 18, 2006
WENDY WOWED US!
The wonderful Wendy Colonna (the pride of Lake Charles, Louisiana!) wowed the crowd at her headliner debut at Antone's on Thursday night -- though it was not until she laid down her guitar and freed herself to wiggle and writhe and direct traffic on and off the stage that she blew the roof off the place. She exploded into the stratosphere during the rockin' "Fe Fi Fo Fum," then got all her musicians playing solos as she led the audience in her no-religion gospel tune, "Nothin' Gonna Take My
Love" -- not fear, not greed, not jealousy! No! No!Digging into the depths of her repertoire, Wendy went all the way back to her 1997 debut, "Girls of Stone" to pull out "Summer Sweat" -- "I'm dancing with no shoes and I'm setting my hair free, I'm trying to turn my blues into opportunities, And the music with no stopping sings a swinging melody" -- lyrics that described Wendy at 19 and almost a decade later just as well. She also pulled out chestnuts from the fiery 2000 release, "Red," which is still available on CD Baby, but most of the songs are from her 2005 release, "Right Where I Belong" [reviewed on May 14, 2005, in FLANFIRE].
The sultry waltz, "October," was joined by the equally delicate "Vacancy," fleshed out and mournful with the full band sound -- provided by Eldridge Goins on drums (see photo), John Thomasson on bass, Charlie Richards and Mark Addison on guitars (and lap steel for Charlie), Ron Dyer on percussion, and Dave Madden on keyboard -- plus the added bonus of New Orleans refugee Dale Spalding on harmonica (as good as it gets!). "May Day" and "Right Where I Belong" were smooth as silk, and "Easy" just makes guys (and gals, too, apparently) want to crawl on their bellies to get Wendy's attention.
Big Blue Hearts Brings Back Orbison's Sound!
Earlier in the evening we were serenaded (the appropriate word) by the Los Angeles transplants, Big Blue Hearts -- well, truth be told, bandleader David Fisher is really from Richmond, Virginia; way back in 1997, he formed Big Blue Hearts while living in San Francisco, got signed by Geffen, got double crossed during a corporate merger, and got out. The NEW band has Madison, Wisconsin's Scott Minchk on lead guitar, Greg Sobol on drums (I think he is from Detroit), and Nashville NATIVE Greg Easterling as the new guy on bass (he's tall!). New dad Fisher still spends lots of time in Nashville, and his songs have been featured on many a network television program.
Early this year the boys packed up and moved to Austin, where they have been well received (one benefit -- A-town is centrally located for touring both east and west and Great Lakes coasts). The band first came to my attention while appearing on KUT's Eklektikos show last month, and this was my first opportunity to catch them live. Given that in my humble opinion, Roy Orbison is the greatest singer of the 20th Century, I was struck (as have been a huge number of reviewers and fans) by the fact that the BAND sounds like Orbison's bands (and Fisher's voice is somewhere between Roy and Gene Pitney -- some say Chris Isaak, but I will NOT put that label on a happily married man!).
Whether it's "Lovin' You (is the right thing to do)" or "Feel So Right" or "Don't Mind Messin'" or the title cut, "Here Come Those Dreams Again," you just get into that 1950's comfort zone when you hear this band play. Last night they also did a fine cover of Radney Foster's "Nobody Wins" and made it sound like one of their own. Guitarist Minchk is also a luthier of sorts and built the guitar seen in the photo himself -- he is available to build guitars for others, too. This one is a hollow body Tellie clone with an f-hole that sounded GREAT!
Wendy, BTW, is playing on September 1st at Momo's and at Love on the Lawn (with Susan Gibson!!!) on September 10. Big Blue Hearts is on tour (into Virginia and Iowa) through the end of August.
David Fisher
Scott Minchk
