Kara Clark, Barefoot and Badass
at the V Club, Huntington, WVA
I honestly don't know what was more intense, the tornado or the weekend with Kara Clark in Kentucky and West Virginia. She and her music, are just that badass. Oddly, the weekend began out on a fairly mellow note. Typical Nashville, typical songwriter's round. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's this cool, mellow show where several singer/songwriters sit in a line and play their songs, individually and together. There's more structure to it, of course but that's the basic idea. They're generally very good songwriters because it's Nashville and the streets there are, you know, paved with very good songwriters.
So, there I was, sipping bourbon, listening to nice tunes at Douglas Corner Cafe with no indication of the coming storm. I played a few songs, met a few cool people, was back home in Mayberry/Peyton Place/Bowling Green by 1:30 am. I don't watch t.v., so still had no idea of the coming level 9 tornado but I sure did have trouble sleeping. I think I fell asleep by six and had strange dreams about ancient storm gods between then and 8 a.m. when the phone rang. It was a tarot client asking if she could come earlier than suggested because this:
was on it's way. Yep. That's the actual one. After the reading I check mail and am getting im's saying, "National Geographic Channel is here, we're tornado fodder." I'm thinking, mannnnnn I have NOT had enough sleep for this and Kara's coming tonight @#$%, (shaking fist at Storm Gods in the sky). I was alarmed enough that, by 11:30 a.m., she who a few days before sat cracking Oz jokes with the door open watching a tornado warning was seeking shelter from the storm. It touched down close-by enough to take down the Outlaw Amish's barn. (You may recall the Outlaw Amish from the barn videos and barn photos - thank god it wasn't that barn the tornado took out but way too close for comfort.)
Needless to say, it was a rather stressful afternoon. When you hear on the radio, "We are not kidding. This is serious. It does not matter if it looks normal outside the tornado can touch down with no warning." and then hear that it's touched down a few miles away; not a good thing; not a good thing at all.
SO I'd had nearly no sleep, had frightening lucid dreams about battling storm gods in the two hours I did sleep and then spent the day fearing impending doom. By the time Kara and her band got to town for their show at the Twisted Tap I honestly didn't see how I was going to pull a third wind out of my hat. But of course, I did.
One word for those of you who are in Bowling Green and have not gone to the Tap yet, GO. Their music standards transcend even their food standards and they've got the best chef on the square. They also have the most professionally run sound/lights of any venue I've been to here. AND they had the good sense to book Kara Clark there.
Kara, who's Grandfather played with Hank Williams, Sr., has an amazing new CD, Southern Hospitality out. The project was co-produced by Kara, Kenny Olson, (Kid Rock) and Mark Lambert, (Leon Russell) with engineering by Toby Wright, (Metallica, Alice in Chains). Olson and Eerie Von are also featured on the album.
Here are Kara, Eerie and Kenny playing one of the songs:
Kara's phenomenal band, (which includes the cousin of an influential Old Time musician, Roscoe Holcomb, Matt Shively on bass, David Walker, Charlie Joseph Abbott and Johnny McCormick), played at the Tap on Tornado Friday before heading out to her hometown of Huntington, WVA for her CD release party there at the V Club. (The V Club, by the way, is ALSO an extremely cool venue. I did not expect to find an in house poster artist with work reminiscent of Bob Masse, fabulous murals of HST and other coolness on the smoking deck, fabulous lighting and the quickest, easiest and best sound check any of us had ever seen yet LO there it was. If you're in Huntington, go to V Club.) Eerie had also painted a super extremo cool back-drop for the show. (Raise your hand if you think Eerie Von painting band backdrops positively RULES).
Example of cool V-Club poster:
The shows were BOTH utterly amazing - all of her songs are fantastic but I think my two favorites are/were The Devil Don't Cry and Living Proof, (scroll down the page to titles, it's so worth it).
Live at the V Club
Here's video from the show. Kara's playing with her nephew, Jared Beckett. The song, "Southern Hospitality", criticizes racism in the South and was co-written by the very talented Beckett.
We partied till the wee small hours at the closest thing to a David Lynch set I've ever seen, an after-hours place called The Crowbar. It didn't look like Twin Peaks but like the other dimension they all jumped in and out of. Red and black, a long wall of doors at one end, a stage curtain in an odd place where there seemed to be no stage...
I made the mistake of saying, "This looks like a David Lynch set!" Which was not well-received by a rather large, drunk and somewhat angry looking West Virginian to my left.said, "WHAT???" I quickly replied, "No, no, I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the other dimension, midgets going to come out from behind the curtain at any time kinda way." He promptly laughed and bought everyone, (in the bar, I believe), a shot in honor of being on a David Lynch set.
The tales told on the way to and from WVA would fill another blog and I just may do that, (I took good notes, as my friend Mike O'Neill once advised was best always done in our Grateful Web interview). But for now I'll leave you with what I returned to, having to display my Outlawness by breaking into my house because two SOMEONES, locked the keys inside!
Photo by the someone least to blame for the break in, Candy Monk:
"Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him." - John Barrymore
"Let me go - The world is bobbing around me." (Also reported as "The room is jumping up and down" and "The world is a bubble - trouble wherever you go".) - Sam Bass
"Friends applaud, the comedy is over." Beethoven's publisher's web site (www.schott-music.com) claims his secretary wrote that he said "Pity, Pity - too late!" Ludwig Von Beethoven
"I've had a hell of a lot of fun and I've enjoyed every minute of it." - Errol Flynn
"It is. But not as hard as comedy." in _Time_ 30 January 1984 (On his deathbed, in reply to the comment `It must be very hard.') - Edmund Gwenn
"I believe we should adjourn this meeting to another place." - Adam Smith
"Either this wallpaper goes, or I do!" [The authenticity of this quote is complicated by his deathbed conversion back to Catholicism and the fact that a priest was with him up to the very end. Another deathbed quotation is also attributed to him: he asked for Champagne to sip as he died, and as he sipped, he is reported to have said: "Alas, I am dying beyond my means."] - Oscar Wilde
See! For some reason today, not Thursday, is when it always strikes me to do this. Another New Year resolution is to actually keep this up, it's always a good idea to take time to focus on the positives, regardless of what else is going on.
Things I love this Wednesday:
Irish coffee with Jameson's, so yummy and warm it's almost worth being outside in the cold for the joy of having it afterwards * snow * chocolate * eating candy out of wine glasses * the Voodoo and Hoodoo infused tunes of Dr. John * my interview in the Amplifier* cashmere * mittens * my rabbit hat, ears and all * making collages * the creepy doll and carriage Bertena Varney gave me * not having to be at work until 10 am again! Thank you holiday's for being great, but also for ending * walks when it's cold but bright and sunshiny out * the new blog I've designed with my son, Charlie's Books* telescopes * the castle blocks Santa brought Charlie * shea butter & Moroccan oil - they've given me totally new skin & hair (in their concentrated forms, not products simply containing them * hula hoops & slinky's * starting a new year! *
Though the original by Gala Darling is 'Things I Love Thursday' I seem to always feel like doing this on Wednesday! I usually wait, and then wind up not doing it/forgetting by Thursday! So, as part of a general New Year's over-haul, I'm going to just make it 'Things I Love Wednesday' and hope that leads to more routine posting of this fabulous accentuation of the positive!
Happy Holidays everyone!
Champagne! * the smell of Gingerbread baking * eating gingerbread! * wine glasses full of colorful candy * wrapping presents * home-made soup on a rainy day * fluffy, fuzzy, snowbally things on bright red slippers * my new, cute, cuddly black kitten * the French Press and fabulous Kona Coffee I got for Christmas * Davidoff cigarettes, I almost wish I didn't know they existed * Edith Wharton * hand-crafted chocolate, especially white chocolate * red velvet cake * Katelan Foisy! * Cole's Funny Picture Book * drawing * Beowulf * Bob Masse's art * Martin Powell's Spider comics * Jack Montgomery's American Shamans and his music too! * holidays, especially Christmas * adventures and a New Year full of more of them to look forward too!
One last thing I love:
Not usually but so much of a Reubens fan but wow. His portrait of Maria Serra Pallavicino.
Read About the First Fashion Photography Model , Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, who financed, costumed and choreographed a series of self-portraits that chronicled her life, including the parts she played on stage. They continued until near the time of her death, when the collection was around 700 photos. She first gained noteriety as the mistress of Napoleon III.
