Lazy Ike & The Daredevils

This band has quietly taken over Trailer Trash's old regular Wednesday night Lee's gig and not missed a beat, providing solid old-timey Country music with fresh modern interpretation, not forgetting to give it a good beat so you can dance to it. Greg "Lazy Ike" Huff has a voice very similar to Mark Stuart of the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, but with a lot rounder tone and less cigarette damage. The band recently put out a very solid collection of new music on their disk "Someday." Songs like "Someday, Someone," "Last Night I Drank Myself Sober," and "Long, Tall, Shadows" are perfect drinkin' dancin' barfightin' numbers and they feel, sound and smell like they were born from the classic wood-paneling and shiny floors of Lee's. If you're a fan of anyone from Faron Young to Buck Owens to the Flying Burritos to Reverend Horton Heat to the Bastard Sons to BR549, you're going to enjoy this disk and any Lazy Ike live show. Here's to hoping there's always a good show at Lee's on a Wednesday night to twirl yer girl, and that the Daredevils lay down that beat for weeks, months and years to come. - Jack Sparks

Yeeeeeee haaaah! Some good old fashioned, drinkin' your sorrows away, country western music. Sounds a little like Elvis and a little like Johnny Cash. Effective use of the slide guitar to really feel the pain behind the music. This is a good cd to play when you’re drinkin' by yourself. I have been really fuckin bored all week, stuck in Boise for work. But when I started playing this cd, I didn't feel so lonely anymore. Good job guys. (by Killer) - www.demorama.com

This was an atypical Lazy Ike show to review; Lazy Ike and company were definitely out of their element last night. (Maybe this helps them deserve the moniker "the Daredevils.") On the other hand, the band has become a veritable fixture at Lee's Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis over the past year where they play every other Wednesday. To their credit, they did a great job at Mainstreet, a difficult task when the audience is giving back a mixture of near indifference and well, indifference.

Opening up with an original song called "Long, Tall Shadows" that starts and finishes with the Hamm's beer theme as bookends to mid-song a rip-off of "Ghost Riders in the Sky," I immediately wondered if the band hadn't tailored their set list to try and grab the attention of the less than sophisticated crowd. Huff's voice, even on the set opener, made me think of an audio morphing of the voices of Johnny Cash and Elvis. In a singer less reverent and aware of the tradition of which he is a part, this vocal styling might come off as an affectation, but in Huff's case it is most definitely a tribute. (If this isn't apparent live, it is most definitely apparent in his recordings.)

A handful of dancers took the stage during Lazy Ike's second number, an up tempo rockabilly cover called "Need Some Lovin'". In contrast to the talented Lee's Liquor Lounge dancers, what the Mainstreet dancers lack in terms of skill, they make up for in lack of soul. I mention this only because the atmosphere kept imposing itself on the show; and I couldn't help but feel like I was lost in the Hal Ketchum song "Small Town Saturday Night." Basketball was on the TVs all over the room, including one hanging over the stage area so you could easily keep an eye on both the band and the game. How handy. (Hint. That's sarcasm.)

When Huff said "We're gonna play some rock and roll now," it was almost as if he was baiting the audience; but it's pretty hard to bait an audience that isn't paying attention, now isn't it? Next came Billy Lee Riley's "Flying Saucer Rock n Roll" then a slower country ballad by Webb Pierce called "There Stands the Glass." Before the next song, Huff asked, "Any truck drivers in the audience? I know Hopkins is a good blue collar town." The next song was the Lazy Ike original "For Lost Time" a touching song written from the perspective of a trucker on a long haul missing his baby back home.

Huff appeared exuberant, and practically cherubic throughout much of the night, perhaps another reason he could get away with remarks like the one I just mentioned. Bass player Bill Keefe had a serious look on his face much of the night, handling his bass well and getting into the swing of things with some artful upright bass spins. Julia Kraeger on drums kept the beat well for facing both a diverse collection of styles for being a fill-in drummer (for now) replacing the band's drummer of five years who recently departed..

A cover of the Jimmie Rodger's song "In the Jailhouse" had Huff again sounding like Mr. Cash on vocals. As the song kind of crashed towards the end he remarked, "Sometimes at the end of a song you're supposed to retard. Sometimes it's just retarded." I wonder again if the double entendre of "retard" was lost on the crowd.

A couple of original songs by Clay Williams, an excellent songwriter in his own right whose guitar playing is more than criticial to the authentic sound of the Daredevils, came a few songs later. (Huff writes the other Lazy Ike originals.) One of Williams songs was called "30 Megaton Sex Bomb" an up-tempo rockabilly number. The other was the slower "Give it All Away."

Huff announced a short "drinking break," taking a few big sips of beer and encouraging the audience to do the same. Into "Someday Someone" from their album. And a slow version of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." Then a new one called "No Honky Tonk Heartthrob" with the lyric "someday I'll make somebody smile."

During a short break between sets, the piped in music from the soundboard was as out of place as we were--unrecognizable loud rock that was practically louder than the band had been through the mains. However, to credit the soundman and room, the sound at the Mainstreet is very good comparatively. So if you have an interest in playing there, do it, and don't let my misgivings scare you away.

The second set opened up with "Little sister," segued easily into some Johnny Burnett Trio, and a slow country song called "Walking the Dog." The band seemed to loosen up a bit in the second set, but sadly the room was emptying out. (I guess bedtime in Hopkins is a good hour before bar time.) Highlights of set two included "Last Night I Drank Myself Sober" (again a song from Lazy Ike's album), and a country/ disco version of Waylon Jennings's "Look Into My Teardrop." Look for Lazy Ike to perform this cover (or request it if they don't) as it is good, funny, and fun at the same time, with a kind of Blondie beat (think "Heart of Gla - www.howwastheshow.com