Robert Earl Keen's Uprising with Randy Rogers Band and Reckless Kelly

&On Sunday November 11th, we attended Robert Earl Keen's Uprising with The Randy Rogers Band and Reckless Kelly at the Bourbon Street Ballroom in Baltimore Maryland. This was the last show of a two week swing through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, which included a stop at the The Birchmere which we intentional skipped for this show. Should have gone to both. Reckless Kelly started the night playing a 40 minute set. The Braun boys are sure entertaining with front man Willy and multi-instrumentalist Cody impressive on the fiddle, mandolin. He even brought out an electronic mandolin when the band broke out into The Who. And as usual, David Abeyta was great on the guitar - and let's not forget Jay Nazz on drums and Chris Schlek on bass. Of the two, this was the only set where I didn't recognize all the songs. Can't even remember if they played "Nobody's Girl" or "Vancouver". And as is usually the case, I still haven't heard them play Drink Your Whisky Down" at a live show. But a great start to the evening.

The Randy Rogers Band trotted out next and started with several crowd favorites, "Kiss Me in the Dark", "This Time Around", and "Tonight's Not the Night" to name a few. Amazing how two different bands can sound so similar. The one difference with this show from others I've seen was that Rogers seemed to take more center stage. Fiddler Brady Black was present but seemed to keep to one location instead of moving around. But another great performance - can't believe we saw the first two bands in the same show - and then again Robert Earl Keen was still to come.

And this was a typical Keen performance, little new material and practically all old favorites. The one new song, his tribute to Levon Helm: The Man Behind The Drums. The old stuff, I mean all: Corpus Christi Bay, Furnance Fan, The Road Goes On Forever, All I Have Is Today, Walkin' Cane, Blow You Away, Gringo Honeymoon, Feelin' Good Again.. There were many more I can't remember right now - he played a long time. He even sang "Merry Christmas From The Family" as a solo encore. The real encore, Willy Braun and Randy Rogers joining The Robert Earl Keen Band onstage. Wow. Made the hour drive home well worthwhile.

Videos of Reckless Kelly and The Randy Rogers Band are available at the MyJoog YouTube Channel.

20 Days in November - Day 11: The Randy Rogers Band

We returned to our alt-country roots this evening at the The State Theatre for ladies night - actually for a performance by The Randy Rogers Band. But with all the ladies in attendance - if this is what Austin is like every evening it's time to relocate. Randy Rogers is all Texas - as are his fans - heckling each other on which Big 12 school they attended. The band's formation is an interesting tale. Kent Finlay, songwriter and owner of Cheatham Street Warehouse pulled Rogers over after a regular gig in a singer-songwriter circle and told him if he formed his own band - he get's a night all to himself. Two month later, the The Randy Rogers Band was born. I first heard the band on XCountry satellite radio a number of year's back and saw the band live at an Austin City Limits Festival around the same time. At the festival I purchased Just a Matter of Time and that has been my favorite CD from the group. Why? The offer songs with meaning combined with hard driving music - part rock and part what country should sound like. No polished Nashville pop here - just true grit. And wait to you see a live show.

This is a BAND - not a solo artist with a supporting cast. Several members participate in songwriting and often Rogers moves to the back and let's the band take over. Sometimes its bassist Jon Richardson carrying vocals, lead guitarist Geoffrey Hill blaring away, and fiddler Brady Black, everywhere at once. That's one charismatic dude. Along with drummer Les Lawless, the group has been performing with this lineup since 2003 - playing over 200 shows annually. At the end of this night's performance - the band is taking a tour break and heading into the studio to record a new CD. As a result we heard several new songs - "Interstate" will be a good one. Rogers did explain that the band needed to play the new tunes in order to practice - but be patient - the old favorites would come. And he didn't disappoint. They played "Kiss Me In The Dark" and "One More Goodbye" as well as songs from their latest Randy Rogers Band and Rollercoaster: "Lonely Too Long", "Lay It All On The Line", "This Time Around".... Their hard core fans sang every verse to every old song while dancing in the front. I'm really going to look forward to their next release.

Local rock band, Memphis 59 opened the show - and this has allowed me to catch these guys twice in the past month - for they opened for Sons of Bill at the State previously. Like that performance, they can rock - with songs like "Me, Myself, and I" and Girl at the End of the Bar". I hope to catch them this week (November 18th) as they team with Justin Trawick for Pink Jams - The Clarendon Ballroom for a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness.