HONKY TONK LIVE • on air since 1999

10.05.2012 – Saving Nashville

Steffan Rock — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:00:30 +0000

French rocker Eddy Mitchell once said: “kick any trash can in Nashville, Tennessee and three guitar players will get out of it”. Nashville, Tennessee also called Music City has been the cradle for the music industry and particularly the country music industry so far that the city became today’s country music’s Disneyland or a country boy’s Hollywood, as stated by Marty Stuart in “Sundown in Nashville”. At KONKY TONK LIVE we enjoy spitting on Nashville in the great tradition of outlaws like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard or Dwight Yoakam, guys who chose to record in Austin or Bakersfield by giving Nashville a finger. If Nashville has given up for a long time to produce real country music, Marty Stuart and Hank III chose the inconvenience of staying in the city in the shadow of Hank Williams to save country music. Coincidentally two new albums of these artists are coming out. It’s a dilemma to listen to Hank III “Long Gone Daddy” produced by Curb Records but unapproved by the artist himself. Whoever is selling that record, this is real country music. Moreover on Marty Stuart “Nashville Vol. 1″, Marty covers with Hank III a Hank Williams tune. Even with only two credible artists, the loop is looped and Nashville is saved.

26.04.2012 – The Hour of the Penalty

Steffan Rock — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:00:00 +0000

This episode features a usual topic in American music : offence, crime, jail, life in prison, penalty and what leads to it. Brad Paisley is yelling at the policeman but beware of the representative of the authorities who doesn’t always like his job, as stated by Junior Brown. He can lead you to the cell as soon as you drive too fast. Moreover if you drink too much, have a shot of cocaine like Johnny Cash, the judge may you sentence to some years behind the bars. And if you kill someone, the State may kill you. Some may also be sentenced to death with no crime committed but with just no alibi as told in “The Long Black Veil”. Of course, as a highlight, you will hear Johnny Cash singing Folsom Prison Blues live in Folsom Prison addressing an audience of convicts. That show is not about justifying offence nor crime. It’s exploring the dark side of the human being. And each one of us can turn bad by a twist of fate…

12.04.2012 – Return to the plains

Steffan Rock — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:00:11 +0000

After a Nekromantix psychobilly opening of the show and Dwight Yoakam sustaining the slapbass in Paradise, Jason Ringenberg takes us honky tonkin’ to Mars. We read the Gospel according to Elvis singing “Run On” followed by Johnny Cash and a late French vocal group called “Pow Wow” running on. Johnny Winter is plugging off his guitar and sliding his bottleneck for a Muddy Waters cover also played by the Juke Joint Pimps to bring a European flavor. John Lee Hooker is hanging out with Miles Davis to the Hot Spot between blues and jazz. During those journeys to Paradise, Mars and down to the Earth, Pow Wow is performing an original called “Regagner Les Plaines” meaning “Going back to the plains” recorded on a native beat, which may be the only original American music, here performed by a French group… From psychobilly to country, blues, gospel and jazz, that native beat is a way to go back to the primitive sounds, where it all came from. A return to the plains…

29.03.2012 – The Last Hour

Steffan Rock — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:00:12 +0000

Today’s episode sounds like a Good Bye just to say hello again in two weeks. Indeed the show won’t be hosted anymore from the Wueste Welle studio in Germany. It won’t change that much as Wueste Welle will still air the show at the same time. So for you listener, the story continues… Dwight Yoakam is embarking us for a 10-mn performance of “Paradise” where we all should go, honky tonkin’ or not. And once again the differences are fuzzy between such music produced in the US or in Europe. The Booze Bombs are rocking while Mike Ness is honky-tonking. Robert Johnson in Texas is recording a blues song while Pablo Casals in Europe is recording a classical music masterpiece on the same day so that mixing both sounds consistent: folk music and classical music, America and Europe, black and white.
And the usual conclusion to the show: drive safely, don’t drink too much, kiss your wife or your husband and listen to “billy” music. Talk to you in two weeks…

15.03.2012 – Live hour with BB Browzee

Steffan Rock — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:00:00 +0000

It’s been a long time since we got BB with us in the studio for the last time. In this episode BB’s back with his guitar and new songs still under the influence of Neil Young but exploring new paths. We are driving together on the road opened by Brad Paisley who wants a muscle car. On that road we’re also cruising with Canned Heat covering Muddy Waters while ZZ Top’s long beards are sliding on the guitar strings to sing like a Mexican Blackbird. John Fogerty’s twanging out the car radio with that rockin’ Bakersfield Sound. We also perform some numbers live, unplugged, sometimes with the bottleneck.

01.03.2012 – Boogie Hour

Steffan Rock — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:00:54 +0000

It’s not clear where this word comes from. But it may come from French, talked in Louisiana, cradle for jazz, blues and therefore boogie. The “bogie” in french describes the wheelsets of a train that produce a hypnotic noise on the railroad track imitated by musicians to create a hyptonic beat. The word has been loaded since then with sexual connotations and originated boogie-woogie, the pianistic prequel to rock’n'roll. In this episode you’ll hear that boogie either black or white, blues or country, rhythm’n'blues or rock’n'roll is the primitive groove of the American Dream.

16.02.2012 – Double-Bass Special

Steffan Rock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:00:03 +0000

In this episode we intend to broadcast green music: we save some electricity. No electric bass. The big doghouse or double-bass is ruling! In roots music that huge and powerful instrument sets the beat and the melodic line and sounds like a heartbeat. The doghouse, stand-up, slap bass, double-bass or whatever it’s called is the pulse of country, blues and rockabilly. Even no need for a drummer if the double-bass player can slap. Some can even sing simultaneously! With the four strings elastically pulled or slapped against the neck, give an ear to Bill Black, Willie Dixon, Lee Rocker among other players and enjoy the real honky-tonk sound.

02.02.2012 – European Honky-Tonk

Steffan Rock — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:00:39 +0000

Since the American soldiers landed in Europe in 1944, the Europeans absorbed their culture through the clothes and the music they imported. Jazz, rock’n'roll and blues as well as blue jeans became well-exported American idioms. British bands of the sixties proved they could learn the blues without being raised in Mississippi and make it their own style. Still today Europe has artists who can play country, blues and rockabilly without even having stepped on the American soil nor talking English fluently. In this episode, you’ll hear as many European artists and bands as American ones. To hear the difference between both sides of the Atlantic is challenging.

19.01.2012 – Open mike to The County Boys

Steffan Rock — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:00:37 +0000

In this episode we are opening the HONKY TONK LIVE mike to the County Boys a.k.a. Andy Keinath and his sidekick Peter Görz picking his Telecaster. You can hear, live in the Wueste Welle studio, those guys performing real country songs by Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck… Those southern german boys can play the music like their southern US counterparts and perform roots music with no compromise as free as they are. Bakersfield twang all the way up!

This is the kind of thing that happens at HONKY TONK LIVE.

Support those true honky-tonkers at www.andykeinath.de.

05.01.2012 – Honky Tonk Live makes apocalypse for 2012 with nuclear power

Steffan Rock — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:00:53 +0000

2012 should be the last year for humanity. If we should go to Hell, we choose the nuclear option with “Uranium Rock”. Johnny Horton, Robert Johnson and Rufus Thomas are standing out of the grave. You will see Tiger Men. There will be Juke Joint Pimps with nuclear slide guitars. You will hear Robert Johnson moaning with Pablo Casals where blues meet classical music. Those men recorded on the same day in 1936 but never met each other. Elvis and Jesus are still alive. You will hear and see only things that Saint John didn’t even write in the Book of Revelation. That only happens at Honky Tonk Live.