North Padre Island Moon May 26, 2010PA 6

Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell

Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell (Austin, TX) the 42 years old front man for Austin’s hippest roots band, The Gourds, played a solo performance (accompa-nied only by a bass player) at the House of Rock on Thursday, May 13th. Russell adopted his pseudonym, “Shinyribs”, from the lyrics of the Chicago rapper, Alex Ludovici’s, song:: “yeth, da ribs of chrome and all polished up to a high sheen and buffed wiff a fine chamois only to be called shiny, is the boss. no matte powder coating, high gloss ribs, ribs you kin comb your hair in.”

Abstract expressionism in the key of C...

Shinyribs is an animated sort whose take on life finds levity through irony in every line of every song he writes and sings. He refers to himself as the “dan-gling participle of roots music...equal parts Waylon Jennings, Robert Rauschenberg and Harvey Ko-rman”. This is a man who lives comfortably inside his own head and creates clever, tongue-in-cheek themes that reveal a complicated man who makes simple music about observations that become obvi-ous only after Russell applies his gifted way of spin-ning words. What I find cool is that Shinyribs honesty appears to be a genuinely happy man. He laughs and dances as he sings his songs such as Poor People’s Store and Country Cool... and as he talks or sings you completely trust everything he offers as if you were a child sitting in your papa’s lap, as he patiently explains Who Built the Moon with melodic reason-ing. Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell is truly an unusual-ly unique man. His creative linguistic talents remind me of beat poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti... a sort of abstract expressionism in the key of C, if you will. I wonder if Shinyribs brain ever slows down enough for him to ever really sleep soundly. He’s definitely wired differently that the rest of us.

Sucking on gin and juice...

Shinyribs was born in Beaumont, TX and, at the age of 17, honed his musical chops in biker bars of Louisiana where he began playing “a hybrid of loud country blues rock and psychedelic swamp jangle for the grumpy ingrates congregated there”. In 1994 The Gourds banded and quickly became Austin’s most sought after Americana-hippy-jam band. They have nine studio albums to their credit. The band’s 1998 bluegrass remake of Snoop Dog’s X-rated rap song, Gin and Juice, became a college radio staple and mega popular internet download. To this day, fans still shout out requests for Gin and Juice before the band even takes the stage. His voice has the hillbilly twang of Levon Helm and he picks a guitar like Doc Watson is looking over his shoulder. In Shinyrib’s own words, The Gourds produce this visceral stream of music for their followers who are both “unwashed and well read”. Russell sites Doug Sahm as a major influence in his musical edification. The Gourds were actually the last band to record behind Sahm before he died...which certainly attests to the quality of their musicianship.

Drinking brandy from a straw...

Russell’s has been working the road lately to pro-mote his Shinyribs persona and support his latest re-cording effort, East Texas Rust, which he compares to West Texas Dust and “roosters in the jungle drink-ing brandy from a straw”. (That “roosters...” line has Doug Sahm written all over it. It’s easy to see why he and Russell found each other.) This performance at the House of Rock was easily one of the more im-pressive shows I’ve seen at any of the venue’s three Songwriter’s Series showcases. It was squarely up there with the Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider and/or Joe Ely shows. Without a doubt HoR owner, Casey Lain, deserves a huge “ATTABOY” for his aggres-sive booking standards and undiminished support of live music! He consistently produces the tastiest and most eclectic live music calendars around the Coast-al Bend.

Mingo Fishtrap

Mingo Fishtrap (Austin, TX) brought their big city funk and soul to the Back Porch on Friday, May-15th. This is a big, bad soul-funk band driven by a first class horn sec-tion and two percussionists. The band is led by Roger Blevins who carries all the vocal and guitar du-ties. These guys have been togeth-er for ten plus years and are one squeaky tight unit. A typical Min-go Fishtrap set includes funky R&B gems by such artists as Maceo Parker, James Brown, Donny Ha-thaway, The Meters, Bill Withers, Wilson Pickett and Tower of Pow-

By Ronnie Narmour

ronnienarmour@gmail.com

Three Chords and the Truth

er, etc, plus their own originals. When Mingo plays, the dance floor always packs out and the party is al-ways on. These boys are flat out fun and their music is infectious. Their show at the Back Porch was no exception as they drew a huge crowd and the party raged from get to go.

The band originally formed when they were students at North Texas State. NTSU is famous for their spec-tacular music curriculum and their twelve o’clock jazz band. The band’s name, Mingo Fishtrap, is ac-tually the name of two intersecting streets in Denton where Blevins lived.

Clifford Antone, Westside Horns, Randy Garibay...

I first became aware of Mingo in 2000 when I was running the Laboratory in San Antonio. Susan An-tone, sister of the late Clifford Antone, had called me and insisted that I check this new band out that had just started playing Antones in Austin and was blowing everyone away. Knowing that S.A. is famous for their love of horn bands (actually at that time, the Westside Horns with Spot Barnett, Rocky Mo-rales, Louie Bustos, Al Garcia and Sauce Gonzales played my club once a week, every week for our over the top Wednesday blues jam that featured an eleven piece core band including the horns, Randy Garibay, Butch Morgan, Jimmy Spacek, R.B. Blackstone, Urban Urbano, and Jack Barber. I mention this be-cause big bands with horn sections is something that the folks in S.A. take mighty seriously. Consequent-ly, I booked Mingo sight unseen on Susan’s strong recommendation. Understand, I wasn’t in the habit of booking (and paying for) eight piece bands flippantly, but Susan’s word was good enough for me and they immediately fit in beautifully. Needless to say, Mingo Fishtrap became a vital part of my music rotation and eventually developed a huge fan base in San Antonio that continues to grow today. I am ecstatic that Min-go Fishtrap found their way to our little village and hopes they make it back here soon in spite of their busy touring schedule.

Texas Blues Runners

The Texas Blues Runners played Neptune’s Lounge in Port A on Thursday, May 20th. I had heard a buzz around town about these guys, mainly from my lo-cal man on the scene, Jack Gant. They were play-ing a local bar on the night before they were to open

for Pat Travers as a sort of dress rehearsal. Jack had filled me in on their pedigree: Mike O’Neil (Austin, TX) on smoking guitar, Charlie Rouzer (Port Aran-sas, TX) on Hammond organ and keys, Steven Crane (Wichita Falls, TX) on bass and Jessie Andrade (Wichita Falls, TX). Crane and Rouzer had played to-gether in the band Baby some years back and enlisted Andrade and O’Neil in November of 2008 to form the Texas Blues Runners.

Port A loves the blues...

All of the players are seasoned veterans and this union is a marriage made in blues heaven. They pret-ty much play all original material (with the obliga-tory SRV cover thrown in just because they can do it right). The band was a joy to listen to, no one was stepping on anyone and each musician filled their re-spective ends without ego induced showboating, rath-er working together as band to produce a sound that was rich on every layer. I’m a sucker for that big fat B-3 sound and it was obvious that Rouzer knows his stuff. Word spread fast about this “warm up” gig at Neptune’s and the place packed out early with Port A locals. It’s been a while since we’ve been treated to a decent blues band without having to leave the island. These guys are a real deal Texas blues band and I re-ally look forward to seeing them again.

Tarpon Music Bash with Al Barlow & Friends

About 20 singer-songwriters from the Texas Hill Country got together with about 20 singer-songwrit-ers from the Texas Coastal Bend and a new tradition was born...the First Annual Tarpon Music Bash: a three day non-stop music festival, hosted by Al Bar-

low (New Braunsfel, TX) at the Tarpon Ice House in Port A last weekend. The Texas Hill Country (San Marcos, New Braunsfel, Wimberly and points be-tween) has become a Mecca for Texas musicians and Al Barlow seems to attract the cream of the crop. Along with hosting a long running and quite success-ful open mic night at The Happy Cow in Hunter, TX (near San Marcos), Barlow was also the founder and curator of the now defunct Texas Music Museum in New Braunsfel. He’s also a mainstay every year at the Terlingua Chili Cook-off which also infuses Hill Country musicians with those in the Davis Moun-tains, because of the efforts of Al Barlow.

The nicest folks you’d ever want to know...

Al drove up in his RV on Thursday with about a doz-en Hill Country pickers in tow, and it was a steady stream of more of the same for the next twelve hours. These guys all pitched in and helped with anything that needed doing. This bunch of guys and gals that came to make music on our little island was the nic-est folks you’d ever want to know. And, that vibe car-ried on for three straight days of music, food and meeting new friends. The sell-out show on Saturday night was absolutely awesome with the endless sup-ply of quality talent on hand. I won’t list all the peo-ple that took the stage again, but you can read my preview of the event on the Island Moon website to see all their names.

Why are you swinging a cat...

Ice House owner, Paul Fain, has done an outstand-ing job preparing his place for live music perfor-mances with the addition of a new stage in front of the venue facing Allister, a huge new bar in the beer garden and the installation of acoustic treatments to his big stage in the courtyard. Through Fain’s dili-gence, the place has virtually become a compound at this point and has evolved into a first class live mu-sic venue with options for acts to play on either of his three stages. And just in time...you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a musician during the three day event which appears to have been a rousing success. Look for more and more good things to come out of this camp in the coming months.

Bob Snarly & the Gnailers

Bob Snarly & the Gnailers (San Antonio, TX) aka Black Bob Jimenez played The Gaff last Saturday after the belt sander races. Island mellow took a back seat to big city edginess on this day in Port A. This band is puro San Antonio and is a unique artistic en-deavor in every sense of the word. The stage plot is

The GaffBeer ● Pizza ● Belt Sander Races (361) 749-5970

Area Music ListingsWednesday, May 26th

Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen @ Brewster Street

Thursday, May 27th

Ryan Beaver & Stephanie Urbina Jones @ Brew-ster Street

Outlaw Nation, Deals Gone Bad, Channel One & Subject to Change, Jiffy @ House of Rock

Indianola Rail Road @ Back Porch

Friday, May 28th

Avenue Rockers, Shrimp Scampi, The Raspas, Free Energy Device & The Periwinkle Massacre @ House of Rock

Five Card Draw @ Brewster Street

Cruise Control @ Executive Surf Club

Gary P. Nunn @ The Back Porch

Electrotypes @ Flip Flops

Saturday, May 29th

JR Castillo @ Brews-ter Street Icehouse

Larry Joe Taylor @ The Back Porch

Echo, Resz, Egshan, Fallen on September, The Labeling Theory @ House of Rock

Sisters Morales @ 3rd Coast Studios

Connie Gatling and David Hoffpauir @ The Gaff

Sunday, May 30th

Del Castillo & Devil’s Hollow @ Brewster Street

Latin Talk @ Executive Surf Club

Scarecrow People @ The Back Porch

Tuesday, June 1st

Open Mic w/ Reverend Fred @ House of Rock

Wednesday, June 2nd

IYAZ, Hyro Da Hero & Thuggizzle @ Brews-ter Street

Thursday, June 3rd

TBA @ Back Porch

Star Wars in Concert @ American Bank Center

The Electrotypes @ House of Rock

Micky & The Motorcars, Zack Walther & The Cronkites @ Brewster Street

Bo Cox @ Executive Surf Club

Friday, June 4th

Houston March-man @ Back Porch

The Spazmatics @ Brewster Street Ice-house

Jam Fest ’10 w/ Im-mortal Guardian, Eternity, Will Fail, Laoric, FTM, With-in These Walls & The Obliterates @ House of Rock

Flashback @ Executive Surf Club

Saturday, June 5th

Jessie Dayton @ Back Porch

Farmer’s Market w/Willey Stafford @ The Gaff

The Golden Age’s Final Show, Darker Days, As-pire , DeadxLines, The Ugley Beats, Shrimp Scam-pi & Bright Light Social Hour @ House of Rock

Oso Texas @ Brewster Street

Tuesday, June 8th

Open Mic w/ Reverend Fred @ House of Rock

321 N

Alist

er Tarpon Ice House Port AransasCold Beer & Hot Music

two electric guitars, bass, drums and Bob on violin and vocals. To put it plainly, this is not a cover band. Their sound is...well, their sound. They play a sort of augmented version of several genres but it’s all meshed together to create its own genre. Sometimes words don’t do the art justice. And, sometimes your every day garden variety of adjectives just don’t seem to work...but, I’ll give it a shot.

Why San Antonio musicians are the way they are...

Here goes: let’s say you are one of the five cats from S.A. in this band, here’s the formula for your music: first; ravenously consume a steady diet of hard rock for 20 years...the real stuff, you know: Joe Anthony, KISS-FM, Legs Diamond, grow your hair down to your shoulders and smoke pot everyday. Now, mix in a little blues...maybe some Bugs Henderson or Chris Holtzhaus. That done, it’s now time to infuse your twisted (and timeless) taste in music with a little reggae (Tosh, Toots, Jimmy Cliff, Marley) then just to be safe, go see The Harder They Come five times in a row and use the word “spleef” at least once in ev-ery sentence for a year. Now, ingest an even smaller amount of acid jazz (Birds of Fire, Thelonius Monk, Lonnie Liston Smith,, etc) with a big healthy dose of real deal funk (James Brown, Parliament, Ma-ceo, Meters)...this could start to make sense after all.. Let all that rattle around in your brain for 5 or 10 years while obsessing over a couple of Flaco Ji-menez, Doug Sahm and Bongo Joe CD’s that are never to leave your sight. After that, go to ten straight Swindle’s gigs at Tacoland and ten straight Steve Jordan gigs at Salute. Now, throw an eight month

tequila drunk on with Joe Reyes and Mitch Webb that involves at least one visit a day to the White Rab-bit where you must call Jim Beal on the phone and whine about something. At this point, it is imperative that you get a tattoo. And, this is important... by all means, DO NOT, I repeat: DO NOT ever go to Aus-tin to see what music the hip kids are playing...it will only confuse you and could make your brain go soft. So, if you wrap your mind around all of those dis-jointed influences and honestly think that you know what good music is, then it’s time to pick up the vi-olin and see what comes out. For pure esthetics, the band should practice only in the bass player’s garage which, historically, should be located just outside of Bulverde. Be sure and duct tape the volume knob on your amp to 10. And there it is... that’s what this band sounds like...puro San Antonio.

And, that’s the truth!

BACK PORCHThursday Summer Music Series Begins May 13

FRI 5/28 GARY P. NUNNSAT 5/29 LARRY JOE TAYLORSAT 6/05 JESSE DAYTON

Tarpon Music BashMay 21,22,23

Tim Dubois, Phil Stevens, Michael Waid, Alex Whitmore, Scott & Smiley, The Rachel Lane Band, Jonathon, Pake Rossi, Lucas Taylor, Tracy Weinburg, Dan Brodag, Vandamonium, Stuart Burns, Mike Williams, Johnson Grass, Al Barlow

Mingo Fishtrap at the Back Porch.

Texas Blues Runners at Neptune’s Lounge.

Kevin (Shinyribs) at House Of Rock.

Al Barlow at Tarpon Music Bash.

Bob Snarly and the Gnailers at the Gaff.