Isbell, Ragweed and Lucero rock Wakarusa

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis, food and entertainment writer for The City Wire, is attending the Wakarusa music festival north of Ozark and providing a review of a few festival performances.

by Peter Lewis

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”

JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT
While Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit most certainly have the sound, pedigree, and demeanor of a large act, they were the victim of unfortunate scheduling. With their scheduled time slot in direct conflict with the mega-selling act, The Black Crowes, the small crowd was perhaps preordained. It certainly was not in any way reflective of the talent on display in the Revival Tent, Saturday evening. If one were to base a crowd solely on that, the audience would have been forced out into the surrounding fields.  The core audience of 40-60 were most certainly enamored with Mr. Isbell. Though they might have felt sorry for the poor turnout, their relative proximity was most certainly cherished.

For his part, Isbell seemed intent on delivering a great show for those dedicated fans. Like Henry V, in his apocryphal speech, lashing his fate to his small band of brothers on the fields of Agincourt, Isbell & the 400 Unit seemed more than content to be bound to the small, devoted rabble. With the powerful opening chords of “Try” pulsing through the speakers, it was obvious that the audience was in for a gritty, soulful treat.

Isbell (formerly of the Drive-By Truckers) and the band pushed through several songs from his past two solo albums (“Sirens of the Ditch” & “Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit”) before settling into “Goddamn Lonely Love,” the closing number from the Drive-By Truckers’ album “The Dirty South.” This desperately soulful tune of smothering ambivalence seemed to effect Isbell enough that he wandered back to an amp during a period of searing instrumentation to take a pull of Jack Daniels. The song is one of the better displays of Isbell’s amazingly emotional use of the English language. The opening stanza:

I got green and I got blues
And everyday there’s a little less difference between the two. 
So I belly-up and disappear.
Well I ain’t really drowning ’cause I see the beach from here.

As if to ironically lighten the mood, the band not only switched gears but got into an entirely new vehicle with their next song, “Psycho Killer.” Isbell ceded lead vocals to his guitarist for this high energy cover of the Talking Heads classic. The animated tune certainly seemed to draw in random festival wanderers, but their happy dancing was quickly ended. Though the musical change left quizzical expressions on their faces, the hardy fans had no such confusion as Isbell began singing “Outfit,” a song he penned for Father’s Day while still a member of Drive-By Truckers.

Throughout the concert, Isbell and the band seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. This was particularly evident as they tore through “Never Gonna Change,” a song Isbell penned for the Truckers’ Dirty South album. In essence it is a summation of life in the south, particularly the devil-may-care, disaffected attitude of some rural residents. There were smiles plastered on the band’s faces throughout the song as the audience bounced up and down screaming the chorus line back at the stage.

The good times deepened further as the sound man and bus driver for the band, Todd Mathis bounded up the stage in his “short pants.” Isbell began relating to the audience that Todd was a “helluva rock n’ roll singer” and was going to do a little tune that “ya’ll should like.” As Isbell turned to proffer the stage to his sound tech, he smiled and leaned back into the microphone to let everyone know that Todd apparently was going to the song “in his short pants.” Isbell went on to admit that “this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone on stage in their short pants before.” The crowd reacted mightily when they recognized the opening chords of Tom Petty’s classic hit, “American Girl.” It was indeed a rocker of a song, with the band nailing all the hand claps and backing melodies perfectly. Todd was living his rock n’ roll dream on stage in his “short pants” joyfully bouncing around during the instrumentation portions of the song.

And Isbell was right, Todd was a helluva rock n’ roll singer. While it was certainly nice to see Todd Mathis feed Isbell a shot of what looked to be Bullit Bourbon, the most impressive interplay was between Mathis and the guitarist Browan Lollar. As Lollar was playing, Mathis approached him from behind and started handling the neck chords as Lollar kept picking. Then in one deft move the strap was off Lollar and around Mathis’ neck without ever missing a chord. Certainly a fancy little trick to display.

As if it was deja vu, the rollicking good times were immediately counteracted by another soulful tune from The Dirty South, “Danko/Manuel.”  This beautiful number was written by Isbell in homage for Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, two deceased members of The Band.  The song is a work of pure aural beauty.  Once again it seemed so affecting that Isbell needed another pull of Bullit Bourbon.

Isbell and the 400 Unit capped the performance with “Decoration Day,” a sparse and soulful song. Loping and powerful, it had a very melancholy edge that mirrored (perhaps) the feelings of both the audience and the band, that such a wonderful performance had to end. With one final wall of noise and a searing guitar solo, the battle against the encroaching masses had ended.

CROSS CANADIAN RAGWEED
Cross Canadian Ragweed was one of the larger drawing acts in the Revival Tent over the weekend. With a raucous rabble of 500 fans or so, the somewhat uniformly dressed group out of Oklahoma seemed ready to please on their first number. Immediately they dove right into their catchy hit “Alabama,” from the 2004 release, “Soul Gravy.” This immediately had the old folks dancing (I want to assure you that my tongue is most certainly not stuck in my cheek. At such a youthful event, I was quite surprised to witness a large contingent of middle aged folks at the concert).

Following quickly on the heels of their opener was “Dimebag,” a song dealing with death and a lamentation of the rapidity with which bad news travels. What followed throughout the rest of the show simply illustrated the veteran act’s ability to keep their fans happy.  As the band rolled through song after song, the crowd kept shuffling along, raising beers, and shouting lyrics.

There were, of course, evident crowd pleaser’s like “Anywhere But Here.” Before beginning the tune, Cody Canada explained that they wrote the boisterous, braggadocio-filled song for their producer Mike Mclure and his negative experience with Nashville, Tenn. 

Those familiar with the band can most certainly guess the obvious kicker of the concert.  For those unfamiliar with the band, it was their mischievous ode to illegal plant life, “Boys From Oklahoma.” With the audience giddily singing along to the song, it was evident that they got exactly what they wished for: good times.

LUCERO
When Lucero, a rock quartet out of Memphis,  took the stage at 6 p.m., there was just a small batch of rabid fans awaiting them. And those fans were clearly responsive to the opening chords of “Bike Riders” from Lucero’s 2005 album, “Nobody’s Darlings.” By the time Lucero barreled into their second tune, a driving cover of the San Francisco punk outfit Jawbreaker’s “Kiss the Bottle,” the responsive crowd had grown into the hundreds.

Lucero’s hard edged tunes were clearly appreciated by the audience. On “Nights Like These,” a venomous, bluesy dirge from their seminal sophomore album, “Tennessee,” beers were raised throughout the audience. With visible emotion they sang along with Ben Nichols’ agonizing lyrics:
It’s nights like these
The sad songs don’t help.
It’s nights like these
your heart’s with someone else.
It’s nights like these
I feel like givin’ up.
It’s nights like these
I don’t seem to care as much.
   
Peppered in with these older staples were songs from an upcoming album. Nichols, scruffy as ever in dark denim jeans, a tattered cut off Coca-Cola t-shirt, arms splattered with tattoos, admitted that there was no set date. He went on to elaborate that the expectation was an autumn release. Though there weren’t a lot of these new tunes revealed, those that were had a rough-hewn sound of driving punkish blues.

With a touch of irony, perhaps, the band waded into “Sixteen,” a song about the inherent difficulties of young love and the resultant marriage (“You were sixteen when you fell in love/No one told you it won’t be enough to beat the odds one night at twenty-two”), before sliding straight into “Sweet Little Thing,” a tune in which a wretch tries to convince his girl to stick things out.

Throughout their performance, the band appeared to be enjoying themselves thoroughly. It seemed as if they were feeding off the appreciative audience. At one point near the middle of their set, Nichols started talking to the soliciting crowd. While he declined to play “Darby’s Song,” Nichols acquiesced to one solicitous fan and played “Darken My Door.”

Some of the biggest cheers of the affair occurred during “Banks of the Arkansas,” a song from Lucero’s self-titled debut album. A roar rose up from the crowd as Nichols’ sang the last word of the opening line, “Prettiest little girl ever I saw/stood on the banks of the Arkansas.” Playing to the crowd’s enthusiasm, they loped back around to reiterate that first line once more to an equally boisterous response. After the song Nichols, a Little Rock native, admitted that, “it was nice to be home.”

After a touching guitar and accordion duet on “The War,” the remainder of the band rejoined the fold to drive the concert home. And while Nichols’ laughed and stumbled his way through one of their final songs, his flub seemed only to endear him even more to the crowd. After they stormed through “Nobody’s Darlings,” their self-effacing closer (“Just shut up and play that guitar/we ain’t nobody’s darlings/we never should’ve made it this far”), the crowd stayed yelling for more. In a weekend of atmospherics and schedules, it was by far the longest a crowd remained cheering in the vain hope of an encore. Though the hope wasn’t realized, both the adulating fans and the talented band deserved one.