Email this article
Printable version
The Derailers to bring country sound to town
Bryant Liggett
Bryant's best
Saturday: Music with Suzanne Vega, 7 p.m., Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, $25/$35, 1000 Rim Drive, 247-7657.
Saturday: Honky-tonk with The Derailers, 7:30 p.m., Durango Arts Center, $10 Durango Acoustic Music members/$15 nonmembers, 802 East Second Ave., 764-7596.
"We started originally with a common vision of a Buck Owens-type sound mixed in with the things we came up with that made up who we were," said Hofeldt from his home in Austin, Texas.
The band has been taking that sound around the country since, sometimes playing as many as 300 dates a year.
"That's how you do it when you're not on the radio in a big way; we're door-to-door honky-tonk salesmen," Hofeldt said.
The Derailers will bring its honky-tonk to Durango Saturday night for a Durango Acoustic Music performance.
Along with Hofeldt, the band is Kevin Smith on bass, Scott Matthews on drums, Basil McJagger on piano and Hammond organ, and Chris Schlotzhauer on pedal steel. Its 10th and most recent release, "Guaranteed to Satisfy," came out in 2008.
Like many country musicians, Hofeldt shares the sentiment that Nashville has not resembled classic country in decades, an opinion Buck Owens (an idol of The Derailers; the band even released a tribute to Owens in 2007) shared 40 years ago.
"What turned me onto classic country was the stripped-down aspect and the rawness and pain in the song," Hofeldt said. "That sort of thing doesn't exist anymore. Nowadays, the roots of country music in Nashville is Jimmy Buffett. I'm not against Buffett, but it ain't the country I'm talking about."
The country he's talking about is what Owens started referring to as "American
Music" in the 1960s. The Derailers' American music is what you would hear in dancehalls in towns across the country, music influenced by the likes of Bob Wills and Owens, too.
"The true roots of honky-tonk are these dancehalls that have been around for years and years, especially in the Southwest, where people would get together and have big dances that would last up to 4 hours," Hofeldt said.
The Derailers' brand of honky-tonk is much more than straight-up country, the guitarist said.
"When you get people hanging out for four hours, they demand a real variety of music, and that's the way we see honky-tonk," he said. "It's a mix of styles that includes swing, rock 'n' roll, ballads, waltzes, the whole thing.
"I love that fact that honky-tonk doesn't have tight boundaries, and that suits us great."
Liggettb@fortlewis.edu
Bryant Liggett is a freelance
writer and general manager
of KDUR.
advertisement
35+ acres in a gated community with awesome views of the La Plata Mountains. Two beautiful trout streams run through the property. Fantastic 10 gpm well, 812 sf guest house with deck, large barn with corral; only 13 minutes to downtown Durango!!!
$699,000
Durango Herald Calendar of Events
