KSER's 2nd Annual "Pull The String" Rockabilly Revival! by Marc Bristol - & Gaby Maag-Bristol (photos by Gaby) We're very lucky to have several really great specialty radio shows around the Seattle area that play the kinds of music we like to listen to and write about in Blue Suede News! Broadcasting from Everett, Washington (about 25 miles north of Seattle) at 90.7 on the FM dial (and at kser.org on the worldwide web!), KSER is just one of at least 4 stations we find ourselves tuned to regularly, and Van Ramsey's "Pull The String" show (Saturdays from 3 - 5pm) is the one that got us listening in the first place. Van plays Rockabilly, Surf, Honky Tonk, a little R&B, and some high octane stuff like Psychobilly on occasion too. In a stroke of genius the station management decided a year or so ago to line up shows with a similar listening audience so as to keep us all transfixed in front of our radios for pretty much the whole weekend. So on Saturday morning, if you care to get up in the morning, there is a bluegrass show from 11am to 1pm. After that Jim Hillmar brings his "Frettin' Fingers" show to our delighted ears, playing all sorts of guitar (and steel guitar) music from Hillbilly and Rockabilly to Jazz, Blues, Psychedelia and anything that has outstanding fretwork to dazzle the ear. He's on from 1 to 3pm, just before Van. He also often has on guests to interview and help with song selections. During the Rockabilly Revival he spent the whole two hours talking in between sets of tunes with Chuck Hughes of the Hillbilly Hellcats. A finer, more congenial and intelligent interviewee would be hard to find indeed! As we didn't really get a chance to visit with Chuck at the show, this made up for it in spades! After Van's show, Jeff Hofman (occasional contributor to Blue Suede News!) has his long running "Dusties" show, playing Soul and R&B music all the way from the '40s to the 70s, with occasional forays into music of this century too. You can easily find yourself tuned to KSER for 6 or 7 hours on Saturday, and if you're up earlier than we like to be, there's some vintage Jazz on before the Bluegrass. You can do this from anywhere in the world via computer and the internet, but you need to allow for any time differences because these shows are streaming, but not archived. On Sunday mornings, bright and early (11am is bright and early for us) veteran NW DJ Danny Holiday brings his "Rock and Roll Time Machine" to the air. Unlike any restrictions that may have existed on the commercial stations Danny worked for many years - here he can indulge himself, and ourselves, in anything he wants to play. He also plays interview clips from his many years in radio, and talks about the songs, plays outtakes, obscurities and is totally entertaining while being informative at the same time! What a guy - so great to have him back on the air after a 10 year hiatus/retirement! Following Danny comes another BSN occasional contributor Jon Noe with his "Juke Joint" show playing '40s and '50s R&B, with occasional live guests. Jon always likes to feature a bunch of honking, wailing sax, but also plays Doo-Wop and the whole spectrum of the kind of music that touched off our whole Big Beat explosion. He, too, is having a benefit Blues show at Everett's Anchor Pub coming up July 10 and 11 this year, with several local bands each evening. Which brings us to this year's Rockabilly Revival! We had to miss one evening of last year's show due to a family birthday party and early call the following morning, but this year we did make it to both nights and the car show too! We did miss a couple of the bands unfortunately - we had heard new Seattle area band the Bear Creek Boys a couple months earlier, really like their Hillbilly/Rockabilly approach. We did catch the last few songs of Billy Dwayne & The Creepers' set, and with the help of great sound engineering from none other than Johnny Mercury, the boys with the all original set sounded much better than the previous time we'd heard them at Club Motor. It helps to have a guy at the knobs who knows what the music is supposed to sound like! The Hard Money Saints also played last year's show, and we've become familiar with a couple of their songs via "Pull The String" over the last year too. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Jack Rainwater is also part of the 28 Blue Suede News 87 production company Flat Black Productions, which organized the show for the benefit of KSER and "Pull The String." We're beginning to home in on the group's current sound, which seems quite different to the way they sounded a few years ago when we heard them at the Folklife Festival's Rockabilly show. Basically, they are now a high octane Neo-Rockabilly style trio. One highlight of the event came with our first chance to hear Orange County, California's Sugar Daddys. They too are neo-Rockabilly, played a lot of original swinging rockers and had an easy rapport with the crowd, excellent musicianship, and we liked them very much! Singer/guitarist Chuck drew the girls to the front of the stage with his magnetic stage presence, good looks and great moves and voice! Maybe they'll send us their CD for review! It was fun to see the Hillbilly Hellcats again, and they ran through several of their familiar hits (they're hits up here as these guys have also played the "Shake The Shack" Rockabilly Ball a few times) getting enthusiastic crowd response. Great lead guitar plus fun & intelligent lyrics make the Hillbilly Hellcats stand out in the modern Rockabilly scene. The following morning we made it back in time for the car show and some of the bands. We did have to miss Van Ramsey's own band the Wild Snohomians (but there's a photo of Van from their previous gig at the Motor in a Johnny Cash Tribute show on page 30), and also 63 Burnout - though we heard the latter at last year's Rockabilly Revival. We caught most of Banzai Surf's set - frontman Joe Jabon has changed the band name a few times (Django Twango...). With drummer Bob Merrihew and bassman Joe Anderson they play hard hitting Surf, Instro, Spaghetti Western - the general spectrum of reverb laden instrumental favorites - loud! In between bands we went out and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the small but eclectic car show across the street with interesting Hot Rods, Street Rods and cool motorcycles! It had been a few years since we managed to hear the Mercury 4 (with Marshall Scott Warner on drums), but with the addition of organ and a 2nd guitar, they mine similar territory with a bit more of a Space theme. We always like to see the groups with female bass players, because Gaby plays a bit herself! And of course wild and interesting guitars make things that much more entertaining. We retreated to Duvall for a couple hours or so between the afternoon program and evening, but arrived in plenty of time to hear Little Ray and the Uppercuts. Ray was living in Vegas for a few years, and playing with Lonesome Dick down there, it's nice to have him back! The drummerless trio format is easy on the ears, and once their sound got dialed in we could hear everything very well - great set consisting of mostly classics from Johnny Horton, The Rock'n'Roll Trio to the Stray Cats, all around enjoyable. Running Scared is a Roy Orbison tribute band, doing only Roy's songs, and with another fine female bass player PLUS two girls singing backing vocals together with the drummer adding Joe Melson's parts. While they could have used a bit of lead guitar playing, the singer had a cool guitar and you can't miss with the great songs! Having a cool look helps too! Johnny Mercury was back after a 1/2 year hiatus, serving up a hot plate of strong original rockers from his CDs. Crowd pleasers like "Shank Hands, Shack Up!" and a couple Gene Vincent style rockers filled up the dancefloor. We saw Darrin Stout at the Motor back a few months ago, and his songs are also becoming very familiar via play on Van's radio show. He's both an excellent singer, and a fine guitarist, and if he also produced his CD then a very good arranger as well. He could perhaps have used a different amplifier, the one provided (thanks to the Soldano amp company) had a very brash sound and I think Darrin could have benefited from cleaner, rounder tones. But he's written some very memorable songs that range from Rock'n'Roll to Blues, Rockabilly to Swamp Pop and everything in between, a real treat! And now, for the clowning glory! Rudy "Tutti" Grayzell, whom we hadn't seen since on of the big Green Bay shows, rocked the house. At age 76, that man can outrock almost anybody a third his age! The Texan's own "hits" like "Ducktail" and the frantic "Let's Get Wild" were mixed in with '50s Rock'n'Roll classics, Tom Jones' "Delilah" and Tex Mex! That man can sing and he's got the moves down, too! What a wonderful entertainer he is, what a great inspiration to anyone who wants to go on rocking for a long time! Rudy also told us that the film he has a part in The Mercy Man, is finally slated for release this very month! He plays a Puerto Rican gangster whose son is a New York cop. The Mercy Man features a couple of Rudy's great cuts in the soundtrack also! Watch for it and his new Country music CD out soon! And tune in to KSER.org on the internet. The weekend lineup isn't the only good stuff they've got going - there's a Blues Show called Clancy's Bar & Grill on Thursday evenings. Just check in at kser.org and you can find their program guide, and lots of other stuff! If you're thinking of a trip to Seattle you can stay tuned to Van's show OR the website to find out when next year's Rockabilly revival will happen. SEATTLE ROCKS: On the following page are photos from more great Seattle shows. We loved Cash'd Out, who played two shows one night at the Tractor! The quartet from San Diego is simply phenomenal, a true Johnny Cash tribute - rocking and real. Sleepy LaBeef was wonderful to see again (what a voice & endless repertoire!) and Lisa & Her Kin also backed him as well as playing their own set - Portland is lucky to have such a great band! We had fun at the Triple Door with Marcia Ball (as always) and her great New Orleans piano sound. And our first chance to see John Nemeth at the Highway 99 Blues Club proved we won't want to miss him any time we get another chance! A great soulful entertainer with a rocking band. Nick Curran rocked Club Motor as guitarist for Kim Lenz and kicked ass with his rendition of "Psycho". A Big thank you to Dean Giles of Flat Black Productions (Club Motor), Highway 99 Blues Club, The Triple Door, KSER & Cash'd Out. Blue Suede News 87 29  
In addition to our two CDs available on Amazon and Itunes, I just released Hollywood Heaven, a MP3 download-only 3 song EP I made while at Musicians Institute. You can stream it off our player here or buy it at Amazon in the mp3 section 
In the last year Hillbilly Hellcats have toured Europe and the continental U.S. We are currently writing for a new CD while enjoying a relaxed schedule for the summer of 2009. We are also currently looking for "anchor" gigs for overseas in the fall. 

As most of you know, we are working on our 4th album as we speak... uh... type hahaha. But, we wanted to share a European Magazine review of our current/last release "Let's Drink Together". The review was sent to us by Dom of Straight Razor Records.

The players on the Album consisted of our old line-up...

Singer/Songwriter Chuck Daniels- Lead Vocals/Guitar

Matt Ross- Upright Bass

Karloz Hernandez- Drums on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

and Laura Dunn- Drums on track 5

Here is the review in it's original form:

Best of all, these are all the original compositions of Chuck Daniels, singer and guitarist of the Sugar Daddy’s!
He definitely is blessed with plenty of talent!
The song ‘Dreamer’ is so good that you have to swing along, bad moods have no chance and will be blown away as soon you hear it, that’s how good it is!
The other tracks on the album are performed in a mid and up tempo! 
From a musician stand point view, I would put them in the category of modern American rockabilly with a bit of Swing and Psychobilly.
Astonishing is that the Sugar Daddy’s have been around since 1995 (a few changes within the band), but not well know at this side of the globe.
Maybe this will change now, I truly hope so for them!
5 star rating
FB