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A FLAWED PLATEAU
On the night of Wednesday, Apr. 20, local lad
Davey Wrathgaber (Visitations, FableFactory) and
a very small crowd are barely raising the dust in
the 40 Watt as he laconically rolls through his
back catalogue while opening for the launch of
Cigarello's self-titled debut CD. With sweet, nasal
quirky and sometimes macabre folk of the They
Might Be Giants kind, Wrathgaber invokes a place
somewhere between Vic Chesnutt and Jimmy
Buffett. It's a place where Arlo Guthrie can be
found smoking bad reefer by a campfire while
singing odes to the new Pope, the old-but-current
President and Elf Power's Andrew Rieger in the
song 'Roll Over Shitface." Wrathgaber adopts var
ious tunings and some simple but clever acoustic
guitar techniques to provide a light melodic
backing to his droll but very amusing, session at
the pulpit.
On Thursday night, the heat is still with us and
so is the pollen, and they're both in the throat of
local singer-songwriter Megan Barr at the 40
Watt. Baer is struggling with laryngitis, but
thanks to clever song selection, her voice and her
ries to tell is a hit Just to prove his chops, Klein
adds a little high-toned harmonica as he sings
about the elusiveness of commitment and, of
course, the big L
In a song about a girl called WiUomene, Klein
raises a chuckle from the crowd by vocalizing the
parts that a country, or slide, guitar might play if
he had another pair of hands or some more
backing. Klein's vocals are truly representative of
the distinctive form he cuts on the small stage:
they may not have classic depth or tone, but they
are full of character and provide all the color,
longing and subtlety that this performer will ever
need. Highly recommended.
By Friday night the heat has been replaced by
a thunderous downpour and I seek refuge in the
Caledonia Lounge where Television Buzz is
playing a light rock jam—sounding a little like an
instrumental version of Lenny Kravitz's "Are You
Gonna Go My Way?"—while they wait for a guitar
to be restrung. I've been meaning to catch this
local trio for a while, just out of curiosity about
the name. I can tell you now that the boys sound
Adam Klein
band are still smokin'. Baer has the cadence of a
beautiful Patsy Cline-style delivery with a touch
less country and a touch more folk, with some
songs tending towards the heavenly voice of Sara
Mclachlan. Megan's partner Michael Wegner is
getting acres of steely-sweet blue-notes from his
hollow-bodied guitar, which he's running through
an effects pedal that must have a knob titled
"Sliding Country Ambiance" turned up to high—it
sounds almost like pedal steel but he's not even
using a slide. The band pulls off a shift in pace
when it brings some old Lennon and McCartney
cut of the closet and the set takes on a tem
porarily jazzy feeL As always, Noel Beverley adds
the sweetest of vocal complements, while Kane
Stanley works a soft-rolling, shuffling, laid-back,
country timing on drums. If this is Baer on a bad
night I think HJ be left speechless on a better
one. Sign me up for the new album.
Up the street at the Ricker Theatre & Bar,
Adam Klein is wooing the crowd with his
endearing and unassuming sense of humor as he
tells tales from his time in the Peace Corps, and
his reflections on two years in the wilderness of
Mali. There's more to Klein than an interesting
face and a great sense of humor, though; his
songs are touching and strongly themed, i.e.
Mississippi women, Mississippi wine, truck-stop
love, etc. Klein works his acoustic guitar backing
well and in true singer-songwriter style, he builds
a little percussion in, amongst the delicate
picking and sweet strum. The combination of
laughs and heartfelt, narrative folk with real sto-
nothing like electronica pioneers Television, as I'd
heard; what they do sound like is a 70s hard-rock
outfit with hints of punk and ska and with strong,
late-'90s, garagey, in-your-face-but-still-palatable
vocals. To help me get to the point the guys hit
the "New Metal" button on their vox amp and
cover Korn's 'Help Me Up." The Buzz boys love
their old-school, hard-rock riffs and emphatic
drumbeats and bass lines, and make for a fine
party-starting power trio. The band's final song
has an early, AC/DC “Dirty Deeds"-era feel and
gees out rockin'.
Sunday. Apr. 24 is day two of the Human
Rights Festival Bob Hay & the Jolly Beggars are
playing a collection of banjos, supplemented by
upright bass, acoustic guitar and drums. This band
has been playing bluegrass-tainted, Celtic folk
around town for a long time, but the core of the
band goes right back to pre-altemative-Athens-
rock band The Squalls. Today, the sound is pretty
close to that of Irish punk folk heroes The Pogues,
but without the drunken spitting vehemence of
the Shane MacGowan days. Bob and The Beggars'
lyrics are mainly based around the poetiy of the
Scottish national icon, Robert Bums, which has
become their calling card, as much as their happy
vibe and polished, sweet-pickin' flow.
Ben Garrard
Ben Gerrard is a radio journalist and writer
living and working in Athens. Club Notes is a weekly
look at the local dub scene.
40 FLAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 27, 2005
BEN GERRARD