Written by Daniel Barker & Eddie Ferranti
May 07, 2009 at 02:12 PM
Image04/10/09 – The Cove – San Antonio, TX
with Eddie Ferranti

We had not headed to thee Alamo City since December 2007, so Rose & I thought it would be a good time to visit some old friends. Not only did we get to hook up with some old softball player friends from the 1990’s, but good pals from H-Town as well who are big Coyotes fans like us.  Fred, Cathy, Rudy and Kye all gathered at a tight classic joint called the Cove.  This place is a car wash,  landromat, eatery, kid slides area,  basketball hoop,  fenced in big ass patio,  full service bar  and a music venue all in one.

Talk about bang for your buck.  It had a nice down home feel with kidders dancin’ with their bare foot mamas to thee opening act “The Lavens”,  who were very entertaining.  Anyway, thee other friends we came to see were the Coyotes themselves.  Barbara “Jean” Keith,  “Bewitching” Douglas  and Johnny “White Shoes”  Tibbles rolled in ready to rock the house.  Rosie & I even played roadies and helped bring in merchandise and drum gear.  After the left field success of having some of their tunes used on the TV show “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, the Coyotes pounded out another CD  (their 9th !)  titled “A Rude Awakening”.  I got to chew the fat with Sir Douglas before the gig and he revealed that because of the said windfall of the TV show gig,  they had found a following that was diggin’  the harder sound if you will.   DT said to watch tonight as Barb was playing with an anger / meaner streak that was being expressed thru her bad ass guitar.

Well, after she opened with the title cut “Rude Awakening” and “Dreams of Glory” I saw what he was talking about.  I strapped a 2 x 4 to my ass and held on as the Coyotes rocked hard thru plums like “Mark of Cain”, “All Dressed Up”, smokin’ hot “First Lady of Rock” (The shirt Rosie had on !) , of course “Rock Harder than You” and the tune that got their  foot in the door on the Dog the Bounty Hunter “Hammer on the Nail” !!!  Yikes folks.  I’ve been on their band wagon since thee early 2000’s, in evidence by me wearing a vintage 2003 Texas Tour t-shirt this night. Personally I dig the harder tunes always, but thats me. BK rolled out some other new ones “Might Have Been Memphis” and “The Ones Who Rocked and Rolled”.  The San Antonio swooner “Johnny Rocks Cantina” had a nice feel to it and Rosie’s favorite “Ghost of Vicksburg” did too.  But the stuff that floated this boat were the scorching louder songs.  “Not Right Now” from “Eight”,  another fave of mine “Rock It” , thee appropriate “Desperate Times” AND “Saw You at the Hop” torched the place down.

You gotta run with what brought you to the party and in the Stone Coyote’s case it seems to turn the knob to the right is the mode of style in 2009.  The only downer of thee evening was while at the start of the gig the place was loaded with Coyote shirt wearing fans, after the break it dropped off pretty bad.  Where the hell were ya goin’?!  Friday Night of a holiday weekend?  Oh well.  I sat for a good part of the gig practically on stage on a stool diggin’ the heat from up close.   Mr.D is drumming his ass off.  Really love checkin’ out the snarlin’ sumbitch.  John is filling the backbone up nicely, too. He supplies the classic rock poses this threesome needs.  To each his own is my motto.  I know we were spent from a fabulous rock out with the Stone Coyotes.  It was well worth the drive from H-Town to witness this tight ass family trio !  Thankful that we’ll get another shot to witness what we saw at Dosey Doe 4/24/09 in the Woodlands………….Hope to see y’all out there, too !

Image04/18/09 – McGonigel’s Mucky Duck – Houston, TX
with Daniel Barker

It is no secret that HMR is a huge fan of The Stone Coyotes and we were not going to miss this straight forward in your face rock n’ roll family trio try once again to break the glass pints at McGonigals Muck Duck in Houston, Texas on April 18th, 2009. They are touring to support their hard to believe 9th album “Rude Awakening” on Red Cat Records. There is a mutual love between this group and Houson primarily because of the radio support they have received from KPFT which was very apparent by the turnout of several prominent KPFT personalities who received a warm thank you from the group early on in the performance. The group’s popularity nationwide was recently given a huge boost when the producers for the hit cable show “Dog, The Bounty Hunter” chose the groups music for the 2009 season. However, on this night following an insanely stormy Texas day, it was only old and familiar faces in attendance.

HMR lead editor, The Edge, told me I better buckle up after he caught them out in San Antonio earlier this month so I went in expecting the juice. I don’t know if it was Rusty determining volume level or what but I was dead center, front row across the table from Vernon and I was not in pain!!! Of course, I always wanted to tell Barbara Keith to turn it up but this seemed a little too soft. That close, I wanted to feel the show too. That was made up for a little by the enthusiasm the group had for this venue, city and state.

The group played a good solid hour and a half pretty much straight thru with no encore. They did take request all of which were good. There were a few mis-steps but they were chuckled away with the amusement of drunken friends playing in the garage. I like the sound of this band way more than the look but I do get a kick out of it. Barbara has a sort of goth-kimono thing going on with the SG and head-set. Ladies man John was decked in sport jacket and glasses before he was down to the staple khakis and T-shirt playing the crowd up with poses and such. Good old daddy Doug had the shades working and just beat the shit out of the drums. I mean wood splintering off the drum sticks-snarlin’-don’t give a fuck beating the shit out of the skins. He gets more out of that little Animal set than the law should allow. No Neal Peart needed here brother.

The one thing TSC do well is stick to formula. It serves them well. This night was no exception. They came out and stuck to the plan that Houston loves – simple rock songs ala AC/DC.  Malcolm Young is my favorite guitar player of all time period. I’ll put him up against anybody. No I am not talking about Angus….TSC just lay down a good riff over a 1-2-3-4 drumbeat/bass line with decent lyrics sung by Barb and it works. The KISS method the band named KISS should have kept to. We got no makeup or flames shooting out of the guitars and shit. Just good ‘ole rock n roll that someone who would bring beer to a job interview would have in his broke tape deck. The one with vise grips as knobs. U know what I’m saying…
The set list this night:
1. Party Down The Hall
2. Trouble Tonight
3. American Child
4. Did U Rock N Roll
5. House Of Indecision
6. Rude Awakening
7. Jolene
8. Ghost of Vicksburg
9. Rock Harder Than You
10. Odessa
11. Betty Lou
12. Where The Old Oak Grows
13. American Girl
14. Shake, Rattle & Roll
15. Dream of Glory
16. First Lady In Rock
17. Hour To Shine
18. Born To Howl

A good solid set with nothing really to blab too much about. TSC were gracious to me and as the new guy to HMR that was too cool. If you get the chance, buy the new disc and/or catch these guys. It is always good stuff. You get your money’s worth and that is more and more important these days. I-KNOW-DATS-RIGHT!!!!!!!  Rumor has it that the Edge is doing just that at The Dosey Doe next week. Good for him!!! See you out supporting live music.

Image04/24/09 – Dosey Doe –  Houston, TX
with Eddie Ferranti

Rosie and I were pumped to get another taste of our beloved Stone Coyotes after we had caught them two weeks earlier in San Antonio.  I had wandered if I would get another “face melting” blow away like that Cove gig was, but did not anticipate that happening due to the showcase they were playing.  Dosey Doe is a venue that HMR had not had the pleasure to check out as of yet.  It has emerged as a player for acts traveling to the Houston area.  Being in the Woodlands it is not a close place to go for me. That being said we looked forward to checking out the joint which is a re-assembled barn if you will transplanted from Kentucky. Well the place “underwhelmed” us big time. We’ll get to that later…

The focus of this night was the next to last stop on the Coyotes 2009 Spring Tour in Texas. This night they were ON from the get go.  The sound was quite perfect to this reviewer, not the ear plugs required version we got in SA.  Just for the record,  Rose needed them not me.  HA!  Anyhow, Barbara seemed at complete ease and just let the songs flow.  It is hard to believe that these folks have NINE albums out to date.  Amazing.  With that much material there is never a weak moment in the show at all.  Rolling out of the gate with “Shake”, “Plain American Girl” and the new title cut to their CD “Rude Awakening” was very smooth. The band just cranked out the killer tunes,  rocking the place with “Pennsylvania Coal Mine”, a dedication to our good buds Rudy & Kye of “Dance Band”, “Land of the Living” and a rockin’  “Party Down the Hall”.  Like I stated earlier,  BK seemed so relaxed and just settled into grooving her guitar big time.  Douglas was rock solid as always on the skins and John (sporting a glasses on look) held down the bass section without as much theatrics as I’ve seen in the past.  No need this evening.  The music DID the talking from start to finish.

Absolutely dug  the dedication from the stage by Barb to my good pal Dave Miller and his laid up in the hospital Peg.  Dave is the man responsible for getting the Coyotes to come to Texas in 2000.  His poor better half has been in the hospital for 43 days and counting with various ailments due to infections. Poor Dave has been a trooper and our prayers have been with him and Peg for over 6 weeks now. “Ghost of Vicksburg” was the tune that was dedicated to them and sweet Rose and HMR.  Nice touch. That is what makes following these folks for almost 10 years now is so cool.  They “know how their bread is buttered” and pay homage to those who follow them.  Like offering the new CD for $7  (if you paid the $18  at door).  Bad ass standouts to me were “First Lady of Rock”, “Trouble Down in Texas”, “Born to Howl” and “Rock Harder than You”.  The new CD is playing well, too from what I can see.  “Might Have Been Memphis” and “Never Say Die”, which had a super guitar  solo by Barbara Jean in it !  One after another the faves kept coming at ya.  “Where the Old Oak Grows”, “Lucky Day”, “Situation Out of Control”,  “Jolene”,  “Adriana” and “Saw You at the Hop” rocked my world !

Barbara shouted out that they hope to be invited back and we should let them know to do that.  Why they do not come down here more often baffles me.  They still own a condo in the Woodlands and I believe they could name how many times a week they want to play in the H-Town and surrounding area-which is booming right now folks as far as the music scene goes.  After only seeing them twice this tour (out of 5 gigs) I feel cheated and sad they are already gone.

Here’s hoping they take a break from writing their 10th album and come back and do what they do best. PLAY LIVE !…………..Now as far as the venue goes that’s another story.  Things I had heard regretfully came to pass.  Some joker (I’m guessing thee owner) gets up on stage proclaiming: “The Dosey Doe has become one of THEE premier music venues, not only in the Houston area, not only in Texas, but in ALL of thee United States!”  SAY WHAT?!  These folks need to get ahold of themselves in a hurry. A buddy of mine waited an hour and fifteen minutes for his food.  Over priced food menu, too. I had to flag down my waitress EVERY time I wanted a beer.  She was more worried from the get go that I was drinking too much without ordering their expensive ass food.  Weak.  From my vantage point there were over 50% of the seats that are LOUSY to watch a gig, too !  Poles in the way all over the place. There were more poles than people in this place. I cannot say I will not re-visit the place, but it will have to be someone I really dig to give it another chance…God Bless the Stone Coyotes and all y’all who support live music.