Everyone needs a watering hole, the kind of place where the beer is cold, the clientele local and the entertainment free.
For Durango residents who like to support live music, the gem of a bar in Gem Village that is the Billy Goat Saloon may easily be forgotten, perhaps a blip on your way to Bayfield and places further east, or a DUI just waiting to happen. It also is a space that supports local and not-so-local bands with free music every Friday.
This Friday, the Billy Goat will feature Deltaphonic, a New Orleans band touring in support of their latest release, “Texas, Texas.” For this tour, they are the duo of Andrew T. Weekes on guitar and vocals and Ciaran Brennan on drums.
Weekes’ onstage career – and the early stages of Deltaphonic – began when the young guitar player was encouraged to start playing gigs. “Someone told me that I should start playing venues,” Weekes said in a recent phone interview. “I went to a bar in a suit and said, ‘Hey, I want to play a show,’ and they said, ‘Get the hell out of here.’ Came back the next day, also in a suit, and was like, ‘I’m trying to get a gig here,’ and they said, ‘No, you’re too young. I came back a third time, and they said, ‘All right, come in on Sunday afternoon, 2 p.m., bring your guitar, show us what you got.’”
The record is a diverse affair of blues, psychedelic rock, swampy folk and jam. The band on “Texas Texas” is large; it was a chance for Weekes to utilize the deep pool that is the New Orleans musician base, including Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief Smiley Ricks and Vincent LaBella of the New Orleans-based metal band Exhorder.
As a musician, Weekes is influenced by Professor Longhair and the funk of Wild Magnolias, but New Orleans has always been more of the music of The Neville Brothers and Kermit Ruffins, a diverse mix with just as much hard rock as horns.
“New Orleans is very much a melting pot these days, with talent that’s local, talent that’s mixed. There’s just so much going on,” Weekes said.
The duo approach à la Black Keys came out of necessity. A medical issue forced the bass player off the road, and instead of canceling the tour, or worse, hiring someone on the fly and hoping they learned the songs, Deltaphonic scaled back.
“Our songs and arrangements were too many and too specific to risk hiring someone on the road,” Weekes said. “We played the Badass Mountain Music Festival in New Mexico as a duo. It went really well, so we’ve been sticking with it. We like the duo sound because it’s tight and even funkier when we want it to be. It’s a very high-energy show for a two-piece.”
liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s best
Friday: Bluegrass with La La Bones, 5:30 p.m. No cover. The Balcony, upstairs at 600 Main Ave., 422-8008.
Friday: Rock, blues and funk with Deltaphonic, 8:30 p.m. No cover. Billy Goat Saloon, 39848 U.S. Highway 160, Bayfield, 884-9155.
