The Toughest Girl Alive
Dave Alvin does the dog-and-pony for all his friends
Stroll through Candye Kane’s website, and you’ll be greeted with a growl worthy of Etta James. “Don’t mess with sister or you’ll go down/ I been put down, kicked out, messed around, but they just can’t keep me down.”
You’ll browse through her cowpunk past in early ’80s East L.A. and her brief stint in sexxxy flicks. You’ll read her disappointed musings on why her BBW fans would desert her for losing 75 pounds … you know, after she got pancreatic cancer.
Drac Conley, meanwhile, is a psychobilly hot-rodder who runs with the same pack of curs as Miss Kane. (Name some no-good musicians with 25-year roots here, and they could ID one another by smell.) Hotshit guitarist/songwriter/mandolinist/more Duane Jarvis has collaborated with Miss Lucinda, Rosie Flores, and Frank Black, and he was long ago jumped into the same no-good L.A. gang. Their cancers are prostate and colon. And of course, our old and much-lamented sweetheart, Chris Gaffney. His was of the much-beaten liver.
And so Dave Alvin, the no-goodest of them all, is throwing a party, to raise some fucking money, and all the old motleys are there. Your $70 to $125 for a three-day pass (or measly $30 per day) gets you a good look at your boyfriend, John Doe, as he’s playing with the Knitters. It gets you an earful of the sweet whispers of Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, and their timeless croons. It gets you within touching distance of the Blasters and Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men (but with Gaffney gone, who’ll be molesting the squeezebox?). Possibly you’ll be close enough to smell Tex and the Horseheads. (I’m guessing that they smell like Olds.) And you’ll probably want to taste the Red Meat. There are more too: Peter Case, Mike Stinson, and TSOL’s Joe Wood; the fabulous Ruby Friedman Orchestra; and Gaffney’s old bands, the Cold Hard Facts and the Hacienda Bros.
Wear a smile, and your dancing shoes, and bring a handkerchief – or two, for sharing – because somebody probably will be making you cry. And do your teensy modest bit of a part, for all our friends.
Dog and Pony Show, Safari Sam’s, 5214 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 666-7267. Sat.-Mon., times vary. $30-$125. Check www.safari-sams.com for schedule and tickets.
Published: 08/27/2008
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Comments
yeah. good.
Stroll through her website and you'd discover that it's "Candye Kane," not "Cane." Jesus, what happened to the quality of your newspaper?