Autopsy IV note: In what is becoming a regular occurance, a reader (Chuck) sent me a show review earlier this week. I hope y’all enjoy it.
Reckless & Ragged: Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC 3/5/2010
People who follow the Texas/Red Dirt music scene are familiar with the friendly “rivalry” that exists between Reckless Kelly and Cross Canadian Ragweed. The pranks these two bands have played on each other range from the harmless to the down-right disgusting. Through all of the jokes, they are the best of friends in music, having played together at countless music festivals and charitable events. When it was announced that they’d be making a run together through the southeast, I was pumped to see a date in Charlotte.
Reckless kicked off the evening and played for a little over an hour. Their new album, Somewhere In Time, was released last month. It is made up entirely of songs written by Pinto Bennett, the songwriter from Idaho who had a huge influence on the band in their early days. The set list consisted of a few tunes from the new album, including personal favorites Little Blossom and Pure Quill as well as some of their older songs, Baby’s Gone Blues, Drink Your Whiskey Down and Nobody’s Girl. They closed their set with an excellent cover of Alejandro Escovedo’s Castanets. This song has been in the rotation for the band for a while, but they’ve not got an awesome jam at the end that puts a great exclamation point on their set.
Ragweed was up next and the crowd was ready. They have built a nice following in the southeast as evidenced by the size of the crowds at their concerts here. I’ve seen them a handful of times and the crowds here are larger each time. The one thing that stood out to me was their sound – it was loud and just plain awesome. They are really on top of their game right now. Front man Cody Canada kicked it off with what they call the “Trifecta”, three songs (Overtable, Overtable Interlude and Pretty Lady) that are all strung together on their new album, Happiness and All The Other Things. A highlight of the show was the cover of Rosalie, a song written by Randy Pease about his beloved guitar. Randy was an integral part of the original Oklahoma red dirt music scene where Ragweed got their start. Cody explained that their next album, their last with Universal South, will be made up of songs written by their old Oklahoma friends (Medicine Show, Mike McClure and the Great Divide, etc.) so that their friends will get the royalties. About midway through the set, Cody Braun, Reckless’ fiddle player, came out to join in on Anywhere But Here. I wasn’t sure how a fiddle would go with Ragweed’s sound but I must say it was pretty cool. Braun came back out to join on Bad Habit, a song requested by someone in the crowd but Canada said he didn’t know the lyrics. He wasn’t lying as he completely forgot them halfway through the song. He played it off nicely and moved on. Another great moment came next when Braun brothers Cody and Willy covered Buddy Miller’s That’s How Strong My Love Is. Later, both bands were on stage for Ragweed’s Time to Move On, which included a great guitar solo by Reckless’ guitar player David Abyeta. The fun continued with the Ragweed classic Boys From Oklahoma and then Crazy Eddies Last Hurrah, a Reckless song that has been covered a lot by Ragweed. This version included Willy Braun on lead vocals with both bands playing. The night ended with a cover of Chuck Berry’s Promised Land, a song you might not think you’d ever from either of these bands. However, they pulled it off nicely.
Overall, just an awesome night of music from two bands that know how to play great music live. One of the cool things that Ragweed does at most of their concerts is offer a USB wristband that contains songs from the show. Absolutely brilliant – it’s very popular among fans and it’s another way for the band to get their music heard. I’ve included a couple of tracks from the show – enjoy.
Cross Canadian Ragweed – Dimebag
Cross Canadian Ragweed – Time To Move On
4 Responses to “(GUEST POST) THE ROCK REPORT: RECKLESS & RAGGED: NEIGHBORHOOD THEATER, CHARLOTTE, N.C.”
On
Just a clarification;
“….when Braun brothers Cody and Willy covered Buddy Miller’s That’s How Strong My Love Is.”
That’s actually an Otis Redding song, but Buddy Miller covered it. Fantastic version, too!
On
I considered going to this show, but opted not to go. Guess I missed a party.
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Having been a Reckless Kelly fan for a good while now, I’m pretty pissed I didn’t make this show… despite living in good ol’ NC. I’ve been trying to drum up support for RK in the Raleigh/CH area where I’ve grown up and spent four years in college, with surprisingly little success. I’ve never really been a fan of Cross Canadian Ragweed though… just for some reason I can’t get into their sound. Rk is just plain sick live though, and having met the guys after a show I went to Raleigh, they’re super nice too. If they ever play near any of y’all, and you like bands like Drive-By and Lucero (which, if you’re a regular reader of this blog like I am, you most definitely are) you need to check them out. I’m glad to see that they’re still rotating ‘Drink Your Whiskey Down’ in their live sets – it’s a great song to see live.
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@kevin – thanks for the clarification. I had heard Buddy’s version and didn’t realize it was a cover, too.
@Grant – agreed on RK live. They are a great band live and have a decent following here in Charlotte, too. They’ve headlined here a good bit and always draw a good crowd. Surprised they didn’t catch on in a music town like CH.