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Page C05
Derailers It was the Beatles by way of
Bakersfield on Tuesday night at Iota as a reconfigured Derailers filled
the night with strum and twang, unleashing their potent combination of
pedal steel, Telecaster and honky-tonk piano.
The Austin band had
long been a quartet, with founders Tony Villanueva and Brian Hofeldt
sharing the singing and songwriting duties.
Last year Villanueva
left the band and now Hofeldt has the reins of a five-piece outfit that is
picking up nicely where the quartet left off.
Villanueva's rich
baritone and magnetic stage presence are missed, but Hofeldt works
overtime to make sure things don't get vocally monotonous.
New
songs from a future album -- including "You're Looking at the Man," which
captured perfectly the Derailers' signature Buck Owens sound -- compared
favorably to the older songs.
Hofeldt worked up pedal steel player
Chris Schlotzhauer, drummer Scott Matthews and bassist Ed Adkins into a
lather on several wild jams, including "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" and
"I Got Stung," and by the time the band rode hard into Beatles territory
in the final moments, with "I'm a Loser" and "Long Tall Sally," piano
player Sweet Basil McJagger was channeling Jerry Lee Lewis, playing with
his feet and seat and knocking his keyboard off the stage. He missed a few
notes in the recovery, but not many.
The Susan
Cowsill Band made its area debut as the opening act, making quite an
impression in a short time.
The little sister of the Cowsills, the
'60s-era family band ("Hair," "Indian Lake"), has developed a wonderfully
evocative vocal style that can transfix an audience on power ballads or
hooky pop songs without resorting to gimmicks or cliches.
As good
as Cowsill's controlled voice is, her smart, emotional songwriting is her
biggest asset.
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