Bluegrass and old-timey music lovers, mark your calendars for Saturday, March 29. That’s when the Crystal Bay Club is playing host to three of the best bands you’re likely to hear in the Tahoe region all spring: The Devil Makes Three headlines the night with Reno’s own Hellbound Glory opening the show and Tahoe’s The Rusty Stings supplying the after-party.
Catch this mix of rockabilly and folk, and acoustic country at the Crystal Bay Casino’s Crown Room, Saturday, March 29. Doors open at 8 p.m., show at 9. Tickets are $10 advance. $12 day of.
The Devil Makes Three:
Devil Makes Three has been setting the San Francisco Bay Area ablaze with their hyper driven version of old-time music. The trio’s sound combines bluegrass, primitive country music, folk, rockabilly, Piedmont blues and ragtime, played with a blazing post-punk attack.
Tahoe World Web Editor Paul Raymore conducted this Q&A session via e-mail last month with Pete Bernhard, frontman for The Devil Makes Three, to preview their performance at the 48Straight weekend in February.
Tahoe World: You guys have a lot more tattoos than your typical old-timey band. In your own words, how would you describe The Devil Makes Three’s sound? Pete Bernhard: Our sound is the bastard child of all the music we collectively love.
TW: What inspired you to start playing ragtimey/country/bluesy/folky/rockabilly/whatever-you-want-to-call-it music? PB: Cooper and I both loved old music when we were young and our parents had folk and blues music in their record collections.
TW: What inspires you to write songs? Any perennial topics or does it change from song to song? PB: Our songs our inspired by life in general — things that happen, places we break down, people we know — all that good stuff.
TW: What are The Devil Makes Three concerts like? How are your live shows different from your studio recordings? PB: People dance at our shows and yell and usually break things by accident. Our live show is faster and louder than our records.
TW: What makes for a great crowd to play for? PB: High energy, people being there to make it a good time, not just be entertained.
TW: Have you played the Tahoe area before? When? Where? PB: The Crystal Bay Casino some. Our earnings were lost in gambling right after the show.
The Rusty Strings (from their MySpace page):
Rousting acoustic pickin’ accompanied by sweet voices make The Rusty Strings a bomber combo in this day and age. Add a heaping helping of camraderie and you get an inimitable blend of kindred spirits generating rootsy ethereality. Their sound rings true. Fatally flawed relationships, comedic truths, road trip fantasies, the arcane and banal, the dark and unknown, are a few of the maxims woven through the songbook of The Rusty Strings. But don’t let all these fancy words scare you. As anybody who has been to the show can tell you, they host a great party!
Since early 2005 The Rusty Strings have been harkening back to a bygone area of boxcars, whiskey, and workin’ with steam power, all the while thriving in the freshness of the present moment. Characterized by high lonesome fiddle and banjo on top of time honored harmonic structures, the band’s sound makes the elders tap their toes, the younguns get up and dance, and everybody else just have a great time.
The Rusty Strings are: Kerry Andras is a hardcore Northern Californian. He has spread his love throughout Sacramento, Chico and the entire Sierra Nevada region, from Mammoth Lakes to Mount Shasta. He also loves Mali because he spent two years there working to make life better for the locals. Consequently, he gets his money for nothin’ and his chicks for free. From age 9, he has been obsessed with rocking and rolling. He is a multi-instrumentalist: mandolin, guitar, bass, violin, and theramin are just a few weapons from his sizeable arsenal. Every once in a while in the wee hours, he has been known to channel Sir Elton John.
Tyler Johnston is originally from the sweet sunny south. Over the years his gypsy lifestyle has led him as far north as Saskatchewan and as far south as Tierra del Fuego. Some of his earliest musical influences as a wee tyke were the radio hits du jour playing while he tested the cigarette lighter on the back seat of his dad’s Oldsmobuick. It soon followed that he co-founded the influential hardcore group Napalm Injection. The rust is history.
Kurt Beckering was raised on the south side of Chicago, and loves the Cubs more than life itself. His nomadic lifestyle, combined with his prodigious talent for songwriting, make him a truly remarkable human being. He recently returned from Timbuktu where he learned to polish his banjo with sand. He is currently residing on The Grid. Or is he?
Jenni Charles explores the nether regions on the fingerboard of her fiddle to desecrate sonic territory in a manner never before experienced by the human ear. She is not just badass but, by default, the sweetest and most down home Rusty String in the universe. In her sparse spare time, she enjoys doing all sorts of stuff!
Hellbound Glory is: Leroy Guitar & voice
Adam Pedal steel, banjo, guitar
Chico Drums & harmony vocals
Johnny Fingers Guitar
Frank Bass
Hellbound Glory at the CBC slideshow:
Hellbound Glory’s “About Hellbound Glory” video from their MySpace page:
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Tahoe World Web Editor Paul Raymore conducted this Q&A session via e-mail last month with Pete Bernhard, frontman for The Devil Makes Three, to preview their performance at the 48Straight weekend in February.
TW: What makes for a great crowd to play for?