March 10, 2010
Lucas Nelson and the ghost of the Reeltime Travelers.
LEFT: Last summer at the Knotty Pine, Lucas Nelson filled the venue with enough good energy to run a locomotive. This weekend at the Trap Bar, Nelson returns to Teton Valley as the crescendo of a long weekend of amazing music. PHOTO BY BRADLY J. BONERMaybe I rocked out to the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack this week, and I get pretty amped when any song from Forrest Gump hit the airwaves. I was born in the wrong era. I can’t help that I get all misty watching Easy Rider with all its summer of loveness, or that I crank Led Zeppelin on a powder day on the way up the ski hill. I‘ve come to grips with the fact that I am not currently hip, but I’ll be damned if I don’t know a good live show when I stumble onto it.
Years ago, the Reeltime Travelers landed at the Trap Bar, featuring music rooted in Appalachia. Promoting their latest album, “Livin’ Reeltime, Thinkin’ Old-Time,” they blew the place away. It didn’t hurt that Thomas Sneed approached the mike every so often to remind people that it was still snowing. That lasted for three days, the snow and the music. The Reeltime Travelers have since moved on, and Sneed now lives among us here in Teton Valley. I like to think his move has something to do with that weekend.
We’ve got a great deal of musical talent in this valley, and a nice slice of it will be served up hot at Alpine Wines this Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m. Joining the mandolin mastery of Sneed and Ben Winship, Roy Andrade will return to Teton Valley. In addition to being the founding member of the Reeltime Travelers, Andrade is a world-class banjo player in his own right and a fellow Appalachian scholar along with Sneed.
“He was the first person my age I ever met who was obsessed with chasing the roots of traditional music,” Sneed said. “We both went out and recorded old musicians and loved finding obscure songs and tunes.”
It’s not likely that Sneed and Andrade will take time to wax poetic for to long about Appalachian Studies, but together with Winship, the trio is likely to be as powerful as sweet ‘shine, though without the wicked hangover.
The show at Alpine Wines will be an acoustic evening of obscure Old- Time songs, lyrical instrumentals, foot stomping ballads and twists of tongue. These three guys will switch around on guitars, banjos, mandolins, tenor guitars, octave mandolins, fiddles and the human voice. Don’t miss this show. If you do, you’ll have to shell out $12 to see them at the Wilson School House the following day at 8 p.m.
Lucas Nelson and the Promise of the Real
Just as unassuming as I entered the Trap Bar to witness the Reeltime Travelers years ago, last season’s music scene brought Lucas Nelson to Teton Valley for Targhee Fest, and I was again caught by surprise. Even better than the all too brief set at the base of Fred’s Mountain was the impromptu show that graced the stage of the Knotty Pine with Nelson on his way out of town.
Steeped in the musical tradition of his father, Lucas Nelson is the front man of a band that has carved its own niche, combining the classic crooning of Willie with a harder edge that Lucas has created in his original songs with the help of tight percussion and bass from the boys that fill out the Promise of the Real.
I can’t recall a time that the Trap Bar has asked for a cover, so pay attention and make certain you get tickets early. Lucas Nelson and the Promise of the Real is set to play Saturday and Sunday at Targhee for $10. Dig change from under the couch cushions, skip lunch, sell your bike…do whatever it takes to see this show.
