We've been listening to Riders In the Sky for years and years. And several of their nuggets of wisdom are engrained in our lives. Never drink downstream from the herd, never squat with your spurs on, and always prefer The Cowboy Way to the easy way. On top of that, I consider Ranger Doug, the Idol of American Youth, to be the best yodeler who has ever existed.
So we were very glad to finally get a chance to see them when they appeared on the roster at the new City Winery, Boston. City Winery is apparently a chain in several big cities and has been very hesitant about opening their Boston location. They've got wine ... which doesn't excite me, but they've also featured a great succession of music acts, though several had to be shunted off to other venues because they weren't "ready" over the Fall and part of the Winter.
They were ready for the Riders on the night of March 22nd, though the best I can give them is a C+ at this point. They have a nice location near North Station, they have a really nice interior with lots of wood and some artfully placed exposed brick, and they have a really nice room for music, with speakers that could probably make the place shake a little if they wanted to. But they've got this weird concentration on wine and even after the long build-up were still short on even that score, their local wine not being ready and having to fill in with stuff imported from (gasp!) New York. And they had no beer on tap, though they'd advertised some, and their food was overpriced and really nothing to write home about, even if you ignored the high price. Next time we go there we're eating and drinking somewhere else and then showing up.
Anyway, we were there to see the Riders and they did not disappoint! The room was only a third full but we were all fanatics and followed their every lead. They lined up with Joey the Cow Polka King with his large accordion on the left, Woody Paul (a Ph.D. in theoretical plasma physics from MIT) with his disapproving looks and his fiddle next to him, Ranger Doug with his guitar and his yodel at center right, and Too Slim with the doghouse bass on the far right.
It's impossible to say that they played everything, because there just wasn't enough time. But they gave it a shot. Ranger Doug and all of them yodeled in turn, Sidemeat came stumbling out for a few jokes, and they lit the campfire at the front of the stage and warmed us all up.
I feel bad about saying that they all were older than they had been in my imagination. What did I expect, that I'd see the Riders I first thrilled to in the 80s? This tour is their 40th anniversary and they're getting up there. But Woody Paul still impressed us with a few of his moves, Too Slim still pounded the old hambone (well, skullbone) as skillfully as he had as a youngster, and Joey Miskulin ripped off some great accordion leads.
But THE guy on the stage as far as I was concerned was Ranger Doug. He played some of the most wonderful Western rhythms right in front of me, and I was in heaven. And then he'd open his mouth and what a range, what richness on the low notes, and what a skillful yodeler! He was the guy I was watching most of the time, even when Woody and Joey got into a slap contest or Woody and Too Slim got into a logic contest (you can guess who won, and it wasn't the MIT guy).
Anyway, though City Winery didn't really do it for me, I liked the room and loved the music and will definitely go back there again. Maybe they'll have something on draft next time.
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