No matter how hard he tries, Hellbound Glory’s front man Leroy Virgil is damned if he does and damned if doesn’t.
It’s the wall country and western rebels often find themselves trapped against when they want to make their music and play their shows for the people, even if doing so means the people like your music, your live shows, and find themselves wanting more.
That’s called success.
And for country and western genre’s tragic heroes, that success may mean their undoing.
This is Hellbound Glory. And Leroy Virgil makes no apologies for being this way. Much like the country and western icons who permeate the band’s sound on Hellbound Glory’s latest CD “Scumbag Country.” Seeing them live, and listening to the new CD, one feels Hellbound Glory could hold their own onstage if they were playing a bill with Waylon Jennings, or David Allan Coe.
North Tahoe audiences got the chance to see Virgil’s words come to hard-drinkin’ life last Friday when Hellbound Glory filled the Red Room at the Crystal Bay Casino for the band’s CD release party.
Playing legendary covers and old Hellbound Glory favorites for the first half of their set, gave Virgil and his bandmates a chance to warm up, get their timing down, and the crowd on the floor.
Virgil has the makings and of a great frontman with his stories between sets, and his ‘rockstar’ moves on the stage. Drummer Chico Kortan and bass player Frank Median kept the songs driving, while Adam Jaffe kicked in with his pedal steel guitar, cementing the band’s country sound.
Johnny Fingers could put on a clinic in ridiculously fast guitar playing any day of the week, and he didn’t take the night off Friday when it was his turn to solo riff. It was during the second half of the set that I became annoyed — not with the band — but with the jackass yelling for Johnny Cash tunes when it was time for Hellbound Glory to play the new songs, filled with rowdy livin’ and a general disregard for the norm.
You didn’t come to see Johnny Cash, you came to hear the Ballad of Scumbag Country. Have another beer. Johnny Cash is legendary, but he had his day. This here night is for the scumbags.
Check out photos from Hellbound Glory's CD release party:
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No matter how hard he tries, Hellbound Glory’s front man Leroy Virgil is damned if he does and damned if doesn’t.
North Tahoe audiences got the chance to see Virgil’s words come to hard-drinkin’ life last Friday when Hellbound Glory filled the Red Room at the Crystal Bay Casino for the band’s CD release party.