today
7 a.m. Annual Twice Nice Rummage Sale Oddfellows Hall
read >8 a.m. Tire Amnesty Day Humboldt Coastal Nature Center
read >9 a.m. North Group Sierra Club Hike See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Manila Dunes Restoration Manila Community Center
read >10 a.m. Spiff Up The Zoo Sequoia Park Zoo
read >10 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens Humboldt Botanical Garden
read >10 a.m. Manila Dunes Guided Walk Manila Community Center
read >10 a.m. Annual Juggling Festival Humboldt State University
read >10 a.m. Exploring the I-Ching Humboldt Wellness Center
read >11 a.m. Soups and Salads for Shoes Fortuna Monday Club
read >noon Landscape Design from the Top Down Living Earth Landscapes
read >1 p.m. March and Rally for Peace Humboldt County Courthouse
read >1 p.m. 35th Annual Daffodil Show Fortuna River Lodge
read >1:30 p.m. Afternoon Tea Humboldt Area Foundation
read >1:30 p.m. Eureka Photoshop Users Group Adorni Recreation Center
read >1:30 p.m. For the Next 7 Generations Morris Graves Museum of Art
read >1:30 p.m. Spring Equinox Celebration Manila Community Center
read >2 p.m. Friends of the Marsh Tour Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center
read >2 p.m. Betty Peugh Sweaney Collection Presentation Trinidad Museum
read >5 p.m. Humboldt Roller Derby Redwood Acres Fairground
read >5 p.m. Elephants and Tigers: A Bollywood Extravaganza Wharfinger Building
read >5 p.m. Downey for Sheriff Spaghetti Dinner Fortuna Veterans Hall/Memorial Building
read >5:30 p.m. Arcata Rotary Spring Wine Festival Kate Buchanan Room at HSU
read >5:30 p.m. Arcata Rotary Spring Wine Festival Kate Buchanan Room at HSU
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds (cowboy songs) Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Blue Lotus Jazz Libation
read >6 p.m. McKinleyville Land Trust Dinner Azalea Hall
read >7 p.m. Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Legged Beasties Mantova's Two Street Music
read >7 p.m. Juggling Festival Show Van Duzer Theatre
read >7:30 p.m. Joe & Me (Greek/Turkish) Cafe Mokka
read >7:30 p.m. A Midsummer Night's Dream Arcata High School
read >7:30 p.m. Tenor Recital Christ Episcopal Church
read >7:30 p.m. We Are All Related Accident Gallery
read >7:30 p.m. For the Love of the Dance Redwood Raks World Dance Studio
read >8 p.m. Karaoke w/ Chris Clay Boiler Room
read >8 p.m. On the Wings of a Dove Carlo Theater (Dell'Arte)
read >8 p.m. Antigone College of the Redwoods
read >8 p.m. So Hum Tales Mateel Community Center
read >8 p.m. The Phoebes Mosgo's
read >9 p.m. Vintage Soul (R&B) Cher-Ae-Heights Casino
read >9 p.m. Cadillac Ranch Six Rivers Brewery
read >9 p.m. The Roadmasters (country) Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. Trevor 101, Children of the Sun (rock/blues) Lil' Red Lion
read >9 p.m. Band Behind Your Hedge (classic rock) Central Station Cocktail Lounge
read >9:30 p.m. For the Love of Dance After Party Arcata Theater Lounge
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
read >10 p.m. Polyhood Productions Pearl Lounge
read >10:30 p.m. Splinter Cell, Watch it Sparkle (rock) Alibi Lounge and Restaurant
read >previous columns
Feb. 7, 2008
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Book by Sherman Alexie. Little, Brown Young Readers A diary ...
read >Jan. 31, 2008
Pet Genius
CD by Pet Genius. Hydrahead. From the primal angst of ...
read >Jan. 24, 2008
Andre Nickatina
Live performance Jan. 18 at the Mateel Community Center Andre ...
read >Photos
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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