today

9 a.m. International Education Week Humboldt State University

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noon Redwood Region Audubon Society Meeting Golden Harvest Cafe

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noon Dreamscapes The Oasis

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4:30 p.m. HomeWork Hotline Call for details

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5 p.m. Guitar Jazz Cafe Brio

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5 p.m. Henderson Center Holiday Open House Henderson Center

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6 p.m. Americans for Safe Access Bayview Courtyard Complex

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6 p.m. Matthew Cook Cher-Ae-Heights Casino

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6 p.m. Bill McBride and Friends Hotel Ivanhoe

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6 p.m. Kindred Spirits Mad River Brewing Company

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6 p.m. Watershed Restoration Week Celebration Wharfinger Building

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6:30 p.m. Seabury Gould at Gallagher's Gallagher's

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6:30 p.m. Share a Story: Growing Vegetable Soup Arcata Library

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6:30 p.m. 2008 Transgender Day of Remebrance Humboldt County Courthouse

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7 p.m. Blue Grass Jam Old Town Coffee & Chocolates

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7 p.m. Mr. Calamari's Jazz Machine Mosgo's

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7 p.m. All Ages Open Mic East Side Deli

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7 p.m. Don's Neighbors Gilded Rose

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7 p.m. KEET-TV's Annual Holiday Auction See Event Description

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8 p.m. Karaoke WAVE @ blue lake casino

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8 p.m. Karaoke at Bear River Casino Bear River Casino

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8 p.m. Smuin Ballet: The Christmas Ballet Van Duzer Theater at HSU

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8 p.m. Getting It Arcata Playhouse

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8 p.m. She Loves Me North Coast Repertory Theater

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8 p.m. The Medium Gist Hall Theater at HSU

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8:30 p.m. Keak da Sneak, San Quinn Mazzotti's Arcata

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9 p.m. Soldiers of Shangri-la Six Rivers Brewery

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9 p.m. Dancehall/Reggae Thursday with Rude Lion Sound DJ Jimmy Jonz The Red Fox Tavern

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9 p.m. Scotch Wiggly The Boiler Room

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9 p.m. The Common Vice, Silent Giants, Rooster McClintock Humboldt Brews

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9 p.m. Hillstomp, O'Death Jambalaya

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9:30 p.m. DJ Ray Ragg's Rack Room

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10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines

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10 p.m. Lightnin' Bill Woodcock Pearl Lounge

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previous columns

Feb. 7, 2008

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Book by Sherman Alexie. Little, Brown Young Readers A diary ...

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Jan. 31, 2008

Pet Genius

CD by Pet Genius. Hydrahead. From the primal angst of ...

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Jan. 24, 2008

Andre Nickatina

Live performance Jan. 18 at the Mateel Community Center Andre ...

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  • Del MCoury Band. Submitted photo Del MCoury Band. Submitted photo
Del McCoury Band

Del McCoury Band

By Heidi Walters

Live Feb. 8 at the Van Duzer Theater

If a creek could gather itself together into human form and walk onto a stage to pour forth its voice it would sound like the Del McCoury Band. There, the clear, crisp water pattering over hard rocks, merry and relentless as Rob McCoury's banjo headed pellmell toward more sorrow-tinged joy. There, the backwater eddy where Del McCoury steps back to proclaim, almost too cheerily, "Count me out of future plans you might be makin'/No more future chances am I takin'." There the frenetic rush toward the cliff, Ronnie McCoury's mandolin speeding up for the dash onto "Hillcrest Drive" where, perhaps, lives the beauty queen these simple old boys find too fine: "She's hard to hold for a simple man like me/When it comes her cocktail hour it's my Miller time." There, the steady forward movement of James Bartram's bass. And, there, the back-flipping riffles and waves of Jason Carter's fiddle.

They're polished, clean, bright, efficient and down-home — five musicians blending strings and harmonies as perfectly as any watercourse that long ago found its channel and kept to it, in general, while still finding ways to meander and leap within it. And when they walk on stage — like they did last Friday night at the Van Duzer — they come at the audience straight away, all pompadours and grins, with perfect sound. And at first you think, this band's too slick, this band's been over this ground too many times to offer anything fresh.

But then it happens. Behind the polished melodies, you see that these guys are pleased to be having fun — again. They've found their proper course. After that reassurance, you can just jump in and join the band. They practically invite it with the first song, or at least that's how it was last Friday night when Del sang, "Pick me up like some hitchhiker / take me off into the wild and blue / I don't care which way I'm goin' / Long as that's the way you're goin' too." Immediately after that he asked the crowd for requests.

The shouts came loud and boisterous, from up in the balcony, from the middle of the hall and from the dancing-in-his-seat dreadlocked guy in the front row: "John Henry! "Black Lightning!" "Uncle Pen!" And more.

"That's enough for a whole show!" retorted Del and everyone laughed. Then he plunged mischievously into a murder ballad no one had requested, "Eli Renfro," after announcing happily it was about a man who killed his wife.

Finally they played the song that had been most lustily hollered for from the crowd, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," Del saying beforehand that "the best part of all is there's a redheaded girl in this story." And a motorcycle. And tragedy.

Maybe it was a little odd to watch this gray-haired, fine-coiffed gentleman, smiling so debonair and devilish at a crowd half-hippy and half-redneck — collectively pure Humboldt — without regard for differences. He presumed accord in the ranks, as any well-worn professional from North Carolina might who's too busy, besides, to brush up on the local history of every town he rolls through to entertain. Like a creek rushing by, he just did his thing and made it everyone's thing. At one point, when he riffed conversationally about the next tune he was going to play, "Logger Man," noted we had some pretty big trees around here, then asked, "You got a lot of folks around here that do logging?" there were plenty of whoops — and no boos. Why, the crowd was so amenable to being entertained by this band that it laughed with deep affection each time Del forgot the words to a tune.

These guys may wear conservative gray suits with ties and sport slicked-back dos, but joy jumps from their fingers and makes people toss their orientation (toward trees, for instance) on the bank for a moment and jump into the swimming hole for a refreshing all-together-now frolic.

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