Sangamon Valley Roots Revival Radio Hour

Music Like It Used To Was!
Sundays at 5 PM

Monday, February 4, 2008

October 10 Bedrock 66 Live!

Remember folks, this new series is a work in progress so check back often for updates on who we have lined up. October 10 we are excited to announce the appearance of a fabulous double bill.

The Boulder Acoustic Society and Otis Gibbs.






Boulder Acoustic Society - Blending sounds almost a century old with modern influences, BAS is jazz, country, folk and rock. Something they call, "American Roots music with the edge of punk rock and the grace of chamber music. Ukeleles, banjo, violin (or is that a fiddle), guitar, accordion, bass and percussion mixed to deliver a mesermerizing gypsy sound. In the 1920's when recorded music was young you could hear jazz, country, swing and blues all mixed together. At a BAS performance you still can!










If Woody Guthrie listened to Johnny Cash or if you took Steve Earle's midwestern twang and humanistic lyrics and combined them with Billy Bragg's punk rock socialism you might get Otis Gibbs. One of the things I like best about Otis Gibbs is that he wears his midwestern roots on his sleeve in a way that seems natural and not a cliche. His music is reminiscent of the great Texas singer/songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Butch Hancock, but Gibbs hasn't attempted to reinvent himself as a Texan. Like Mellencamp without the big record deal, the corporate advertising or the overproduction. Maybe I just relate to a guy that tells of meeting a girl "at a truck stop in Effingham". I've never felt the hot west Texas winds blowing the sand across my face but I might have met the "daughter of a truck drivin' man at a truck stop in Effingham" (from Daughter of a Truck Drivin' Man). Or is it his insistence that if we really want to end war and hunger we can, "if we want to" (from I Wanna Change It With You). I wonder, did Joe Hill write love songs?

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