The groove is coming to Clocktower Quad tonight-and this time it's got a twang to it. Starting at 10pm, jam rock regulars Leftover Salmon and Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen will appear together in what promises to be an iconoclastic meeting of styles and-hopefully-a hell of a good time.
Leftover Salmon are spawned from the same mold as many of the bands making the rounds in Phish/Dead tape trading circles. Their brand of hippy-dippy, happily oblivious party music is most at home at smelly outdoor festivals and stoner dorm rooms-the type of sound that purports to create a "positive vibe" or "energy" or similar catch phrases.
While some might question how well that was accomplished at the band's last Duke outing-Leftover Salmon headlined the ill-attended Senior Concert in 1998 at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro-tonight's show avoids many of the pitfalls of that attempt. Barring rain, this show will be outdoors (or otherwise, in Page Auditorium), and it also won't be thirty-five minutes away by bus. In this improved context, the Salmon ought to be a live music experience at its most organic, readily available and without hassle or pretense.
Founded in 1990 in Boulder, CO, Leftover Salmon call their style "polyethnic Cajun slamgrass," which seems to be Salmonspeak for a funky bluegrass mélange that dabbles in rock, country and folk as well. Friday's show will be all-acoustic,
The band's live sets draw from across the musical spectrum, with rock, bluegrass and even polka standards mingled with the Salmon's own free-jamming compositions. A set might include a cover of Honky Tonk Women right behind a two-step polka and When The Levee Breaks-the original blues song, not Zeppelin. While that may sound less like a mélange than simply a mess, Leftover Salmon pull it off surprisingly well, with an offhanded honesty that can't help but make you smile. Their name might suggest otherwise, but Leftover Salmon certainly don't stink.
Country-folk veteran Robert Earl Keen might be Austin, Texas' coolest export. Since starting his career in Texas A&M bars in the early '80s, Keen has built an enviable following whose fanaticism might compare with Buffett or even Phish's followers. His albums may not move many copies, but stick your head in the door at one of his Robert Earl Keen's many Cat's Cradle shows-or at massive outdoor gigs like the famed "Texas Uprising" in Dallas-and you won't see a square foot left to stand on.
Keen's gravel-throated pipes and stripped-down, lightly twangy sound place him squarely in Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's musical universe. But Keen doesn't focus on politics-his forte is fun, and songs like "Going To Town," with its honky-tonk swagger
Still, Keen's got a country singer's knack for telling a story. He meditates on traditional themes for the most part-working-class weekends and truck-stop romance, booze and border towns-but his grainy style and roughshod voice give him a ring of authenticity that Garth Brooks might have lost in music school. And when he does get serious, such as on "Rolling By," Keen communicates his message with a true artist's light touch. He inflects his story of a small town's slow demise with just the perfect dose of bittersweet, coming across neither sappy nor callous. Whether he's singing about stumbling out of a bar or reflecting on the American landscape, Robert Earl Keen gives everything he does a genuine Texas touch.
While their styles differ wildly, both these artists share one important commitment-putting on quality live shows. Like the Grateful Dead, who never sold a million of any of their records but could sell Soldier Field out in a heartbeat, both Leftover Salmon and Robert Earl Keen are live musicians first. They communicate best when they're on-stage, with a night wind at their backs and a crowd in their faces. There won't be a bank of lasers, or inflatable dummies or giant lemons sharing their stage-there won't be room. The music-the living, breathing interaction between artist and crowd, artist and artist-will fill it more than enough.
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