Lucky Tomblin Band – In A Honky Tonk Mood
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Posted On May 1, 2006
A 50-year veteran of Texas beer joints and dancehalls, Lucky Tomblin knows honky-tonk. He and his all-star band (which includes Redd Voelkaert, John X. Reed, Earl Poole Ball and Bobby Arnold) don’t just dust off obscure Texas classics, they revive them, filling them with fresh energy and paying homage to key figures in the genre such as Floyd Tillman, Johnny Horton and Moon Mullican.
Like Mullican, Tomblin instinctively grasps the roadhouse connections between blues, jazz, western swing and rockabilly. He also knows this music isn’t for concerts, it’s for dancing, so drummer Jon Hahn and bassist Sarah Brown are front-and-center, making the whole affair jump and swing.
Whether working through jazzy slow-dance belt-polishers such as Tillman’s “Cold War” and “I Love You So Much It Hurts”; rip-it-up rockabilly stomps of Jess Willard’s “Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor” and “I’ve Got The Bull By the Horns”; or classic barroom shuffles such as Harlan Howard’s “I Don’t Believe I’ll Fall In Love Today” and “The Key’s In The Mailbox”, this set of deep-cut covers unfolds like an enjoyable honky-tonk history lesson. This is what happy hour at the Continental Club in Austin sounds like. Dim lights, thick smoke…
