Americanarama 8, continued
Rex Hobart and the Wrecks were the next band on the main stage, and while Two Cow Garage was a tough band to follow, Hobart and company not only did so, but soon made the crowd very happy they were playing, starting with Hobart playing along with “Hey, Good Lookin’” by the All-Hank Band during his sound check.
He and the Wrecks opened with a slow, cool, dreamy song called “Take It Back,” with some nice steel guitar. Hobart blended this with a fast two-stepper, “Got to Get Back to Forgetting You,” very twangy with more good steel guitar. “You Got Some Cheating to Do,” one of my favorites in which a guy who cheated on his woman offers away she can get back at him, sounded tougher and more muscular live than on CD. After a weeper and some traveling music having Hobart gone after his woman hurt him once too often (with Charlie Quill playing some good guitar), Hobart and band played “Between a Rock and a Heartache,” upbeat country with just a touch of rock and roll. He ended his set with three more winners, a cover of “She’s 12-Stepping out on Me,” a version of Steam Donkeys’ singer Buck Quigley’s “It’s Not Love” and his own “Your Favorite Fool.”
The All Hank Band with Rob Falgiano
The Steam Donkeys themselves played outdoors about 90 minutes later and performed another good, upbeat show of country tunes with a lot of swing influence and just occasional rock flavoring. The band, particularly Quigley, Quill and drummer/vocalist John Brady, really dug into “Northern Border Town” and its nice harmony vocals, as well as the faster “Can’t Find a Place to Stay” and “I Just Wanna Raise the Bar a Little Higher,” the latter a fast honky tonk drinking song (no surprise from these guys).
Quigley, Quill and Brady took over the role of hosts as the Steam Donkeys slid into a very cool country swing instrumental, “The Panhandle Rag,”with particularly nice steel guitar from John Deickman and electric guitar from Quill and a tougher than usual version of the country rocker “Ain’t That the Way.” A fine version of possibly Quigley’s best song, “Dashboard Mary,” the story of a guy who lost his woman and, trying to drink his pain away, turns to his car’s icon for support, preceded a cover of the Cowslingers’ “The Burro Show” before the Steam Donkeys ended the show with their traditional “Train Medley,” including “Train, Train” and “The Wabash Cannonball,” as well as a humorous portion of “Pinball Wizard.”