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  Home Page » A&E » Blues Americana Acts In Town This Week

Blues, Americana acts in town this week

Jon Németh, 7 Smart Fellers visit

by Ted Holteen
Arts & Entertainment Editor Durango's place on the map makes for a mixed bag of pros and cons on the national music scene; many national touring acts are reluctant to take a detour to the Southwest and those that do usually are between bigger weekend stops in Denver, Albuquerque or PhoenixThis week, the scales are tipped in favor of the pros, as two rising stars are making midweek visits that are sure to keep dancing shoes in tip-top shape.

First up, Wednesday at the Summit is a fun outfit out of Montana called the 7 Smart Fellers. Everything points to a boot-scootin', stompin' good time as the Fellers mix their own songs with Western classics from Willie, Waylon and that crowd. Their hometown papers laud them as "the most, er, professional, of the entertainers ... on the back of a truck," no doubt alluding to their first performance on the bed of a 1959 Ford pickup.

There are seven of them, which leaves plenty of idle hands to supplement the standard stage lineup with washboards, flutes and any other noisemakers they can fit in the van, or truck, as the case may be.

On Thursday, up-and-coming bluesman John Németh stops by the Abbey Theatre on the second stop of a tour that eventually will take him to Norway and Sweden after dates in the Midwest, Michigan, the Deep South and Texas.

"That's how it works: The phone rings and you go," Németh said from his Bay Area home last week during a rare break in his touring schedule.

Németh's youth - he's 34 - and his Boise, Idaho, roots belie his prowess as a top-notch blues musician.

His career took off in 2004 when he signed with Blind Pig Records, the industry's brass ring for blues artists, and his latest CD, "Love Me Tonight," has cracked the Top 5 on Billboard's Roots Music chart. The album is a regular on Sirius/XM satellite radio and also is a National Public Radio favorite - Németh and Elvin Bishop, who played on two tracks on the recent record, made an appearance on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" in October.

"In this day and age, blues isn't always popular, but it goes up and goes down and then up and down again," Németh said.

"There's not a lot of improvisational music on Top 40 radio; it's almost at an all-time low. But you can take it anywhere to any establishment."

ted@durangoherald.com