{"id":638,"date":"2013-01-19T20:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T20:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.71.127.204\/wordpress\/?p=638"},"modified":"2015-10-13T15:09:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T15:09:01","slug":"mama-tried-easy-street-bar-league-city-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/19\/mama-tried-easy-street-bar-league-city-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Mama Tried – Easy Street Bar – League City, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Written by Traci Rogers <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jan 19, 2013 at 08:00 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Image\"No, they didn\u2019t turn \u201c. . . 21 in prison doing life without parole. . . \u201d\u00a0 Instead, the Mama Tried band featuring Ryan Beard (guitar, vocals), Blake Plsek (banjo), Jason White \u201cJ-Bone\u201d (guitar, dobro, vocals), Hunter Baughman (stand-up bass) and Steven Redman (percussion) is, in the words of their closest colleague and brother-in-music Mark Borde, \u201c. . . a rowdy, lawless group that plays fast \u2018thrash grass\u2019 music, blasting off at every venue they play . . .\u201d\u00a0 Or, one might describe them as new school folkies with old souls.<\/p>\n

It seems that these days, the unspoken prerequisites to performing in a rogue folk band like Mama Tried are a thorough knowledge of rock\/punk music, as well as a more than apt ability for playing it.\u00a0 Think:\u00a0 Billy Bragg joins Wilco, Flogging Molly\u2019s ties to Motorhead and Krokus, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar before they were the now–defunct Uncle Tupelo, a hard rockin\u2019 Nemo before they became The Avett Brothers and Texas\u2019 own The O\u2019s who have been known to configure a Zeplin tune with the acoustic bliss of Dustbowl strings.<\/p>\n

Not only is the Mama Tried namesake a tribute to Merle Haggard\u2019s song \u201cMama Tried,\u201d but it also is a tribute to their late friend and band mate Frankie Cooper.\u00a0\u00a0 Cooper\u2019s untimely death eventually put an end to the raucous, scream-thrashing Grave Robbers band wherein three of the MT members had previously played.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Frankie were alive today, he\u2019d be playing in the band [Mama Tried] with us.\u00a0 Oh! He loved Haggard!\u201d Redman said.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t request that the band play its namesake song.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat song [\u2018Mama Tried\u2019] is too country clich\u00e9.\u00a0 We take pride in our own writing,\u201d Redman explained.<\/p>\n

Although Mama Tried echoes in the tradition of No Depression<\/em> (see www.nodepression.com<\/span><\/u><\/a>) revivalists, the quintet spins its own distinctive sound with a twist of Gulf coast saltwater and sunburn.\u00a0 Also, each member brings to the band his own experience from his former punk, reggae or thrash metal band which adds more texture and diversity to the Mama Tried sound.\u00a0 As a result, categorizing their music proves challenging, an aspect that I believe characterizes an exceptional band.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t confuse them with the handful of other bands in North America claiming the same name.\u00a0 Besides, according to co-lead singer Ryan Beard, he and his band mates have legal license to use the name.<\/p>\n

Other bands with the same moniker can\u2019t touch the Houston boys in originality.\u00a0 They write the majority of their songs and certainly arrange what few cover songs they perform in a feverishly intense cross pollination of Celtic call-and-response with a rapid Blue Grass tempo and a Punk-don\u2019t-give-a-damn vein that runs down the middle of their compositions.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the Mama Tried sound is a hirsute banjoist whose playing\u00a0 implores listeners to do a double take if they have never heard the band.\u00a0 After all, how often does one walk into a Houston tavern or dance hall and hear a banjo player, particularly one like Plsek who looks the part of an Appalachian front porch musician?\u00a0 He may not hail from the hollers of Kentucky, but I\u2019d bet my money on him in a banjo duel.\u00a0 Like his band mates J-Bone and Baughman, Plsek is a devout Jerry Garcia fan, taking much of his influence from Garcia\u2019s banjo expertise.\u00a0 Long before the late Garcia assembled The Grateful Dead, he was a young San Francisco folkie whose first love was the banjo, a sensitive instrument few master.\u00a0 The 31 year old Plsek plays with a seasoned style and a tattered license that screams, \u201cI know the rules, so I can break the rules!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mama Tried filled League City\u2019s tiny Easy Street bar to capacity with 50% die-hard MT followers and with 50% Easy Street regulars who had never experienced the defiant sound of a folk punk band with all acoustic instruments, particularly one with a banjo.\u00a0 But, the regulars stomped and clog-danced right along with the younger generation until closing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knocked the heel off of my shoe dancing to these guys!\u00a0 I\u2019ve never heard anything like them.\u00a0 They seem to crawl up into their instruments, so in tune with each other, you know.\u00a0 They stop and start on cue with no hesitation,\u201d said bar patron Kim Cooper.<\/p>\n

Pam, the owner of the small neighborhood tavern for the past 20 years, said \u201cThey\u2019re so good!\u00a0 We need to get them on the X-Factor<\/em>,\u201d but I don\u2019t ever see that happening.\u00a0 Mama Tried is not a band of pop balladeers who would dare cater to production line monotony of the Nashville and Los Angeles idol makers. It is the band\u2019s unorthodox assault on the senses that seduces audiences who, upon first listen, are instant fans and followers.<\/p>\n

After the band\u2019s second set, I thought they would run out of sweat and bid us \u201cG\u2019Night!\u201d No!\u00a0 They gained more energy instead!\u00a0 As long as the fans demanded more, and as long as the beer flowed, they continued with freight train momentum.<\/p>\n

In between sets, Plsek would trade his banjo for a Hawaiian kahon drum that he sat on to play while accompanying J-Bone who picked away at a set of Pink Floyd covers.\u00a0 J-Bone stripped the studio commercialism from \u201cAnother Brick in the Wall,\u201d and fingerpicked the rock anthem down to its bare essentials, proving that his stringed instruments are really an extension of himself.<\/p>\n

They are more than passionate about the music and will \u201cplay for a crowd of five or 5000,\u201d J-Bone remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd nothing stops us!\u00a0 The show must go on no matter what!\u201d added Beard.
\n\u201cYeah, look at my hand,\u201d Redman said proudly, motioning my attention to the eight stitches in his hand that he sported like a badge of honor.\u00a0\u00a0 True to form, the band played on, and Redman dutifully kept time with his brushes and three piece drum kit.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Beard once played a Corpus Christi gig while suffering from stomach flu when he toured the Gulf Coast in a 26 foot sailboat for 38 days with Plsek and best friend Mark Borde.\u00a0 From Seabrook to Corpus Christi, the three sailors moored their boat in several sleepy waterfront towns, often playing impromptu performances for various-sized audiences.\u00a0 In the unforgiving July heat inside an un-air conditioned hull, the crew wrote and recorded an album.\u00a0 Visit www.guitarstringsandsailboatthings.com<\/span><\/u><\/a> to purchase the CD and the journal of their daring adventure.\u00a0 Clearly, the Gulf coast water took effect on Ryan\u2019s writing like the hurricane Ike-inspired \u201cSeptember 13.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before meeting bassist Hunter Baughman, I was told that he is the glue who holds the band together, the peacemaker.\u00a0 It\u2019s true, and it\u2019s reflected in the psychedelic space theme that adorns his curvaceous beauty of a bass fiddle.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a constant work in progress, kind of like a tattoo,\u201d he said.\u00a0 But watch him convulse around the stage and twirl his bass like a sexy tango partner, and few will feel the peace and tranquility reflected in the art work.\u00a0 He spanks the bottom notes of the tunes with energy that is either dizzying or contagious to spectators.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Mama Tried plays a sound from the past that\u2019s filtered through the present.\u00a0 Attend one performance, and the next thing you know, you\u2019re stalking the band. They currently have a regular gig on Monday nights at Seabrook\u2019s Cabo. When you do see them, make sure to purchase their CDs Long Road to God\u2019s Country<\/em> and 29 Rusty Strings<\/em>.\u00a0 There is nothing like a dose of Mama Tried on the way into work on a blue Monday morning.\u00a0 Stop by to \u201clike\u201d and say hello on their FaceBook page and sample their music at www.reverbnation.com<\/span><\/u><\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Traci Rogers Jan 19, 2013 at 08:00 PM No, they didn\u2019t turn \u201c. . . 21 in prison doing life without parole. . . \u201d\u00a0 Instead, the Mama Tried band featuring Ryan Beard (guitar, vocals), Blake Plsek (banjo), Jason White \u201cJ-Bone\u201d (guitar, dobro, vocals), Hunter Baughman (stand-up bass) and Steven Redman (percussion) is,… <\/p>\n

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