Rubber City Review

After I pushed the button on my Dan Hicks/Mike Flowers post, I realized I’d made a big mistake… Should’ve featured those videos in a more appropriate format. Why not put together a virtual variety show for the interweb generation? What a great idea, right? And even if it doesn’t make sense, who’s going to argue with a guy wearing an ankle bracelet?

(start here)

Bobby Whitewall

Hi, welcome to the Rubber City Variety Show… I’m your host, Bobby Whitewall. We’ve got a real humdinger of a show this week, and it’s brought to you by our good friends at Johnson Motors – it’s all about you, your friends and your Johnson.

So how ‘bout this weather in northeast Ohio? Don’t like it? Wait five minutes – it’ll change… (click)

Wow… this audience is a lot better than the one from last week. I tell ya, that crowd was so tough, they started leaving five minutes before they showed up… (click)

Yeah, I mean tough… And who’s idea was it to book that pastry chef? Poor guy had to use a crème brulee torch to defend himself… Now that’s a tough crowd! (click)

Hey, how ‘bout those Indians? They’re really on a tear. Just last week, Slider finally showed up at the ballpark without a bag over his head… (click) See, he’s a mascot – no need for the bag! (click)

You guys are great! I wish I could take all of you home with me – and throw my wife out the back door! (click)

Just kidding, sweetie… Alrighty, let’s light this rocket! We’re gonna kick things off with a swingin’ little band from Southern California, Big Sandy and his Fly Rite Boys. Sandy?

Dad gum it, how ‘bout those boys? I’m old enough to remember the original by George “Thumper” Jones. Hell, I even remember when George had most of his liver! Man, he used to fight like mad with Tammy Wynette… She got tired with all that honky tonkin’ – told George she didn’t like him drinkin’ and drivin’ too. George said “I don’t drive when I’m drunk. I just sit in my car and wait for my house to pull up”… (click) What’s that, Vic? Yeah, good idea. Go ahead and edit that one out.

We’re gonna take a short break for a word from our sponsor, Johnson Motors. But stick around – because we’ll be right back with a very special guest from a far-away land…

You know, when the sun’s going down and I’m heading back to the harbor, I can always count on my Johnson to get me home. (click)

I caught this next fella’s act last week at Sonny’s House of Meats over by the racetrack. Now I’m a “moon in June” kinda guy, so it took me a little while to warm up to his crazy songbird schtick. But my wife was on him like a cheap suit, so I figured you ladies out there might dig him too. Turns out he’s here on a visa from one of those “stan” countries – Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Nolyricstan, whatever. (click) And Sonny, there’s a man with a heart… Not only did he get this guy a job packing meat, he also designed the set for this very special performance. So the least I can do is throw in a little plug for Sonny’s House of Meats. Remember, you can beat Sonny’s prices, but you can’t… Christ, Vic. Quit waving your arms around. I’m moving as fast as I can. Let’s give it up for the great Trololo…

Nice job, Trolly… Come back when you learn a few songs. Y’know what chicks also dig? Harmonica players. Not sure what that’s all about, but it reminds me of a joke I stole from my Uncle Gus, who blew more than a few Hohners over the years. What’s the difference between a pizza and a harmonica player? Pizza feeds a family of four. (click) Anywho, we found this guy down by the Greyhound Station – home of the Dirty Dog, as we like to call it. And we’ve got a very special guest today who just happened to be visiting relatives in Cleveland on her way to Reno. Peggy, let’s see if you can resist an unemployed harp player…

Hey, that harp player was pretty good. Stepped all over Peggy, though… don’t think she’ll invite him on the bus.

Man, the air’s getting kinda stale in here. Let’s wheel a couple of those cameras out the back door and take a little walk outside. Besides, we’ve got some groovy cats set up near the shipping dock, ready to slap you upside the head with some serious blues. You heard of B.B. King, Albert King, Earl King?? Well, none of those guys were available to play today. (click) So I called my booking agent and asked him to find another black guy named King who plays blues guitar. Here’s Freddie:

Hey, Freddie… watch those lapels. You’ll poke somebody’s eye out. (click) Time for another pause for the cause. Don’t go away – we’ve got a little taste of Vegas for you Rubber City Chickens.

A few years ago, I had a job booking fresh talent over at the Tangier. You know, the kinda class acts you used to see on the Ed Sullivan Show. So when they let me go, I was smart enough to grab my old Rolodex. Luckily, I still had the number of Ed’s former assistant, Cosmo, who convinced us that plate-spinning is the way to go. Kids love it, and it gives mom and dad enough time to mix another highball. Then again, Cosmo also sent us that sicko with the fist puppet. Kids couldn’t sleep for a week. Can’t say I’ve seen this guy’s act before, but he comes highly recommended. Alphonse, bring this guy out while I freshen up my drink…

Well, guess he was over-served in the green room. Remind me to pull Cosmo’s number out of the Rolodex. Anywho, that’s about all I can take for one night. It’s been a real pressure… and you won’t want to miss our next show. Booked a guy you won’t believe – juggles baby goats. Got his name from Ed’s former accountant. See you next week! (click)

A 56-year-old rockabilly legend teams up with some hungry young hotshots… throws them 16 hard-bitten songs that are ready to burn… and then lets it rip in an old-school analog studio, where everything is recorded in glorious mono. An instant classic? Maybe in a parallel universe, where Elvis swears off pharmaceuticals and fried banana sandwiches. In the real world, it’s just another great record that few people heard before it dropped off the face of the earth.

Of course, it didn’t help that the label, Upstart, quietly folded only a few years after the record was released in 1996. Or that the artist, Ronnie Dawson, only had about five good years left in him before he died of throat cancer in 2003. Or that rockabilly remains a genre of limited interest to most people.

Dawson, aka “The Blonde Bomber,” was no stranger to adversity. A native of Dallas, he was surrounded by music as a kid – his dad, “Pinky,” fronted his own western swing band. The younger Dawson soon picked up the guitar and became a teen sensation playing rock ‘n roll and honky tonk music in the Dallas area. And he quickly gained the attention of the ageless one himself, Dick Clark, who signed him to his Swan label. But then Clark and his label got caught up in the “payola” scandal of the late-‘50s that also dragged down former Rubber City DJ Alan Freed. And Dawson was sent adrift, without a label or opportunities to capitalize on his early hits, like Action Packed or this one… Rockin’ Bones

A Young Blonde Bomber

The Blonde Bomber eventually signed with Columbia, where he recorded several first-rate singles. I especially like the B side to Do Do Do, released in ’61. It’s a churning blues-rocker called Who’s Been Here, with Dawson (under the alias Commonwealth Jones) wailing away in his high-pitched, almost otherworldly voice… Who’s Been Here

Dawson also carved out a niche for himself as a multi-instrumental session player, even showing up as a drummer on notable rockers like Hey! Baby by Bruce Channel and Hey Paula by Paul and Paula (effectively cornering the “hey” market). But he always remained well under the radar screen – except in Europe, where his rockabilly hits were revered by roots-music fanatics throughout the Continent.

In his book “Texas Music” (published in 1998), journalist Rick Koster tags Dawson as a “Criminally Underrated Artist”: “Ronnie Dawson is an ageless phenomenon, a fire-fingered genius who helped create rockabilly and then resurrected it forty years later – all without seeming to move in time.”

Eddie Angel

Beginning in the late ‘80s, Dawson decided to build on his newfound cult status across the pond by recording several albums in England. I especially like the previously mentioned release from ’96, “Just Rockin’ & Rollin’” – mainly because it features the blazing guitars of Los Straitjackets member Eddie Angel and another young turk, Amsterdam native Tjarko Jeen. And Dawson, who had been shredding since his teens, brought his own bag of tricks to the proceedings. I’m not sure who’s who on this next cut (I think Jeen takes the first solo, then Angel), but it’s pretty clear these guys came to play… Sucker For A Cheap Guitar

As you can tell, the album was recorded in near-complete denial of the improvements that had been made in studio technology since the first rockabilly records were waxed in the mid-‘50s. And this, of course, is another one of its key strengths. It’s as if someone had rescued the “Rockin’” sessions from a long-lost tape discovered at a garage sale in Memphis. Just Rockin’ and Rollin’

Tjarko Jeen

But this is hardly just another form of retro-mania. For a fairly hard-core rockabilly cat, Dawson brought a nice diversity of material to the Upstart project. A couple of songs even fall under the category of border-rock. In a 1999 article that appeared in the Dallas Observer, Dawson mentioned that he was inspired to write Mexigo and Veronica after sharing the stage with conjunto accordionist Mingo Saldivar in 1994 at Carnegie Hall, where both men performed as part of a roots-revivalist showcase. “Wearing a big grin, Dawson says they’re ‘conjuntobilly’ songs,” noted writer Robert Wilonsky. Here’s a little visit to Mexigo.

Even with these side trips thrown in, “Rockin’” comes across exactly as billed – no-frills rock ‘n roll made by grown men with bad habits and scars to prove it… You Got a Long Way to Go

Dawson recorded two more albums after “Rockin’” – “Live at the Continental Club” (released in ‘98) and “More Bad Habits” (’99) – and kept touring like his life depended on it… which was probably the case, given the shamanistic powers of his live performances. And even though he couldn’t beat the Big C, his legacy lives on through classic rockers that bear the unique stamp of this bigger-than-life Texan.

The Blonde Bomber, live at L.A.’s Blue Saloon (Nov. 1990)… Dawson backed by a great rockabilly and western swing band from Southern California, Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys. I love how this amateur video seems to drop you right in front of the band at one of those small bars where a stage seemed like a frivolous expense. So good, I had to include two clips (Dawson’s beaming grin during V-8 Ford Boogie seems to say it all)…