Wednesday, September 7, 1977
page 16
daily nebraskan
Part-time country band 'swings' as local entertainment
By Casey McCabe
Followers of local musicians should be well acquainted
with Sour Mash, the seven piece 'cookin' country and
swing band, from Lincoln. ' v
While the group' mainly plays the local circuit to
moderate-size crowds, the audiences are enthusiastic.
"We a part-time band, and our only aspirations at this
point are to take the band on the road for a week at a
time and keep a week end off now and then," explains
drummer Dell Darling.
"Playing weekends in the band keeps everybody from
getting tired of each other."
Other band members include: Steve Turbot, piano;
Chuck Lettes, steel guitar; Dick Carlson, bass; Pam Harms,
vocals; Randy Barger, guitar and vocals and Reynold
Peterson, vocals.
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Sour Mash that began 5 years ago as an acoustic trio. It
them became a standard country band with the advent of
Lettes and Darling. The group has played in its present
form for a year.
Times changing
The band traveled to such places as North Dakota.
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Canada, playing in
"the tiny old time bars," Peterson said.
"That was before young people were into country.
The kids used to hate country, but it's coming around
again. Times are changing."
with backgrounds in classical music, rock, blues, and
country. .
"We're also getting into the old big band, swing
sound," Darling said. "It's fun' to do and we get a good
response from the people, I'd like to see a return to the
dance craze; it's more enjoyable to play xo a dancing
crowd."
The group does their own arranging from artists such
as Bonnie Raitt and the Mills Brothers. Each member is
influenced by specific musicians, from the late Fats Waller
to the Eagles. But rather than putting the group's style in
limbo, it allows them to be flexible and diverse. .
One album
The band has made one album: 'Sour Mash Drinks and
Goes Home." But the group agrees that the two-year-old
LP was a different segment of Sour Mash.
Foreign films to begin
Tickets are on sale for the Foreign Film Series, in its
25th year at UNL. Fifteen films from, various countries
make up the series.
The first film of the series, Alain Resnais' Providence,
will be shown free, Sept. 11 at 4 p.m., in the Sheldon
Film Theater. Tickets for the rest of the series will be sold
at the door. They also are available at the Nebraska Union
south desk.
Tickets must be bought for a specific night and time
Sunday, Monday or Tuesday at 7 or 9 p.m. Price is $9
for students and $10 for non-students. Only season ticket
holders will be allowed at the remaining films.
also plans a Foreign Classics Series of older foreign films.
Twelve films will be shown Sunday or Monday evenings
when the regular series films are not scheduled.
A season ticket is not needed for the classics series.
Admission is $2, or $1.50 to holders of foreign film
season tickets. The first film in the classics series is Ken
Russell's Women in Love.
Tired of those old bare walls?
New prints maybe the cure
If you're tired of those bare residence hall walls, or
want to add some class to your apartment, then the uni
versity art auction and library might have just the paint
ing for you. . ,
Sponsored by the Union Program Council (UPC),
starting at 7 p.m. in, the Union main lounge, an auctioneer
will sell about 20 prints from the library that haven't been
popular rentals in the past.
Print lending will start after tlm auction and continue
Thursday and Friday.
A student or faculty I.D. card is needed to rent a
p aiming, rees sian ai & cems anu range io az.uu. rronis
will be spent for upkeep of prints and frames and will go
toward purchasing new prints for the library.
Students and faculty members who have their eyes on
particular prints should arrive early Wednesday evening,
because the lending will be on a first come, first served
basis. Individuals will receive numbers when they arrive.
In the past, 90 per cent of the paintings have been loaned
out.
UPC looks for leaders
If you're a leader, not a follower and enjoy scheduling
ivfnt vnu mav want to anmV for a Union Program
Council (UPC) committee chairmanship. The UPC
currently is interviewing for chairpersons of the Concerts
Committee and the Human Potentials Committee. Inter
ested persons can sign np for interviews by visiting or
calling the U1C office, 115 Nebraska Union building,
I'honc 472-2454.
'We first got into country music in hopes of getting
jobs," Darling said. "The rest of the music scene was
crowded so we would do any gig, from little red-neck
bars, to street dances for farmers, as long as we got paid."
Now the band constantly is booked for appearances
and will give several performances in Lincoln and Omaha
in the coming months.
"The live music scene in Lincoln and Omaha is good
and seems to be getting better " Darling said. "Every artist
in the group would like to thank the people for the tre
mendous support and following we've received " .
Sour Mash is. playing at The Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th
St., Thursday through Saturday
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Photo by Bob Pearson
Chuck Lettes of Sour Mash performs on steel guitar Thursday afternoon in front of the Nebraska Union. The per
fomance was followed by Hotfoot, a group from Kansas.
arts
& enteitainm
i
Geils' latest album unusual-and good
By Douglas R. Weil
What Geils, formerly known as the J. Geils Band, has
done with rock 'n' roll on its new album, Monkey Island, -is
strange. . .and wonderful.
The sound of Geils' latest music is strange in the sense
that it's an unlikely direction to pursue in 1977. Monkey
Island is wonderful in the sense that I would not trade a
copy of this album for 10,000 copies of Peter Frampton's
latest schlock, I'm In You.
Geils, on Monkey Island, has reached into the dusty
files of rock music and merged , the antique with the
modern. More simply, it has taken the most basic roots of
rock V roll and sprinkled in all the magnificent slickness
that a 1977 recording studio will allow.
Conceptually Monkey Island is like designing a
$6,000 sound system for a 1957 Chevy.
"I Do" is a perfect example of the Geils approach on
album review
Monkey Island. Really "I Do" is not much more than
your basic ShaNaNa and Flash Cadillac bee-bop.
In fact the entire song is held together by some well
done do-wah background vocals that give "I Do" just the
proper amount of period authenticity. Ambitious Peter
Wolf, the band's lead vocalist and frontman sings here just
like the Fon "'ould if he didn't always have six inches of
rubber hose up his nose.
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If you like good movies, but aren't too crazy about
subtitles, the Union Program Council (UPC) has the
answer. A new series, "Take One," from (lie Union Films
Committee presents ten American Film Classics starting
with Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush on Thursday.
The Union Films Committee is a new committee which
grew out of the Centennial Room films of last year, ac
cording to Union Program Manager Sara Boatman.
While Lincoln's commercial theatres provide a variety
of contemporary American movies, and foreign films are
regularly scheduled on campus 4thcre didn't seem to be
much in the way of classic American movies," Boatman
said.
The films were selected by a panel of several faculty
members and students.
Funds for "Take One" were approved by the Fees
By .the way, any mention of Peter Wolf must be ac
companied by the adjective ambitious. Wolf is married
to actress Faye Dunaway, yet he is out working and
sweating to make a living.
Another fine piece of music is the Motown-sound
"You're the Only One". At first I refused to believe that
this one was by Geils. "You're the Only One" sounds
much more like an escapee from the next Stevie Wonder,
album.
This similarity to Wonder is understandable after catch
ing the first notes of the introduction led by Magic Dick's
incredible mouth harp. Wolf , is just the right mixture
of black-white, joy-grief. Of course "You're the Only
One" already is a hit single.
Geils strikes gold on another winner by the name of
"I'm Not Rough". This song has a real ear-grabber intro
duction. The clarinet and ragtime piano whirls the listener
into a time frame of the early 1920's. Other showstoppers
on Monkey Island include, "I'm Falling," "Wreckage"
and "So Good." ,
Ironically, on all of Monkey Island there is only one
unnerving moment, and that occurs on the title track,
"Monkey Island." Again the band catches the listener's
attention with a tasty introduction, a sort of reggae rhy
thm and blues fusion. But from this point the band loses v
its grip in a hurry.
Monkey Island shifts back and forth through a num
ber of changes in rhythm and mood. The album's strength '
belongs to Geils who didn't stick with one idea too long.
Monkey Island suffers from both rambling and lack of
direction. Unlike the album as a whole Monkey Island is
a journey with no obvious destination.
Allocation Board (FAB), "We requested a start-up budget
from FAB for the committee, but by next year we expect
to be self-supporting," Boatman said.
Chairperson Jim Anderson said, "Because we didn't get
the audience we wanted (with the Cents.mial Room films)
we put it under a little better management with more
promo, and gave it a series format.
"People like oldies, so I tried to think oCa series that
would be popular, but artful," Anderson said.
The Gold Rush is seen by many critics as Chaplin's
finest film, according to Anderson.
"It's a film that hasn't been in circulation for around
20 years except for museum or special showings"
Anderson said.
, Admission is $1.50 for students and $2.00 for non
students. Series tickets are available for $7.00 and $10.00
at the Union south desk.
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