Hardcore Country is back at the Broken Spoke. This homey little aggregation of local and national legends has been around since 2004, but they took a hiatus for a few months last year and earlier this year.
Alvin Crow leads the pack on fiddle and vocals, with Jason Crow on bass, Neil Flanz (Gram Parsons) on steel, and Pete Mitchell (Ernest Tubb) on guitar. Sometimes Pinetop Perkins shuffles in and plays a little piano. Spoke owner James White is always on hand to do numbers like “Mr. Honkytonk and Mr. Barstool,” Buck Owens’ “Cinderella,” and “Mountain Dew.” This show was a personal favorite of Clifford Antone.
Tuesday is shaping up for us older folks as a hot night for seeing music, even with the departure of the queen of Tuesday, Toni Price. Dale Watson returns from Europe and picks up his Tuesdays at the Belmont Oct. 23 at 7pm. That’s an opportunity to not only catch his new “Ameripolitan” style, but see the legendary Gene Kurtz, co-writer of “Treat Her Right,” on bass.
Bobby Whitlock and Coco Carmel have ceased their Tuesday night residency at the Saxon Pub, but the husband-and-wife duo will return next Tuesday, Oct. 23, to acoustically reinvent their rock & roll pasts with a Southern roots edge, including a remarkable piano-and-sax arrangement of “Layla.”
After that, you’re just two minutes from the Broken Spoke. And if you request George Jones or Marty Robbins, Alvin’ll love ya.
This article appears in October 12 • 2007.