Daddy – At The Women’s Club

The five-piece Daddy is co-led by Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack, longtime Nashville undergrounders and former Bis-quits bandmates, and this live debut makes it clear where their loyalties lie. They believe in guitars, and when that’s not quite enough, more guitars — typified by the Crazy Horse tumult that opens “Nightmares” and the whole of the epic, lurid Johnny Thunders tribute “Slide It in”.

They believe — in no particular order — in Jesus, Elvis, and Keith, the last two each getting to share a couplet with the first over the course of the evening. Above all else, they believe in rock ‘n’ by god roll in a crowded club on a payday Friday night. Well-placed pauses for breath come via Womack’s trademark off-center character sketches, with guitar-playing cousin Darryl, feces-flinging Martin Luther, and cussing Vicky Smith among those drawn. And his “I Miss Ronald Reagan” is three shuffling minutes that serve as a setup for a punchline that will be received along party lines.

Even true believers occasionally stumble — “Happy In Your Skin”, kind of a bar-band take on reggae, feels like a work in progress — but most everything clicks. Kimbrough’s “I Don’t Like It” is a standout, its expressive guitar-slinging and calls to the operator suggesting Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” reconfigured for a new (but no less primal rocking) era. Best of all is “The Powers That Be”, a perfect marriage of The Band and the Faces, with the latter half of that couple underscored when the song segues into Ronnie Lane’s “Ooh La La”. The combined results represent my favorite seven and a half minutes of music in 2005. Honest to Keith.