fifties guys who can still get their groove on

[HOODOO3005@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 8/1/00 4:55:19 AM Central Daylight Time, one of y'all  
wrote:

<< > I saw Link Wray play in Kalamazoo a year ago (or so), and he was
 > still amazing.  I don't think you could say he was at all
 > "historically accurate" to the fifties in appearance or
 > equipment, but he sure had the right attitude, so who cares!  
 Attitude will get you a lot farther than any historical replication. When I 
saw Billy Lee Riley last winter, a few people said that the show was great, 
but too blues oriented. Hell, everything he ever put out had a serious blues 
thread to it---a lotta great rockabilly just naturally does, can't shake it. 
That all-blues disc he did a few years back, HOT DAMN!, was better rockabilly 
by accident than some of the newer bands on purpose. And don't get me started 
on Dale Hawkins' recent WILDCAT TAMER---scary, offhanded, eccentric 
swamp-rock that lets you know rockabilly is more than jitterbug beats, gentle 
acoustic guitars, and women in dumpy June Cleaver dresses. If you liked 
Charlie Feathers stuff from the 80's and 90's (and by all means, you should), 
tune into what Hawkins is doing today. Anybody named Hawkins has got to be a 
little crazy.

One mo' fifties pioneer who's still got it: Milt Trenier (formerly of the 
Treniers), who was singing lounge ballads in his own club (wifh old Treniers 
albums on the wall!), until Chicago's rockabilly community "adopted" him and 
now he's doing vintage R&B with a vengeance. He's even got this old-school, 
showboating 1950's sax honker who lies flat on his back and walks around the 
audience. The club is gone, but the sound wails on...

JP