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Palo Duro Records » Two Tons of Steel

SxSW: Wed 3/14 @ Waterloo Icehouse (Austin) 10:55pm

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KUT: Radio Without Borders 7:52pm

Two Tons of Steel, “Baby You Got Me”

Texas band Two Tons of Steel might be described as equal parts Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello, with a liberal dose of Buddy Holly and a dollop of The Ramones. It’s a one-of-a-kind sound that bandleader and frontman Kevin Geil likes to call “countrybilly.” They brought their unique sound to Eklektikos on December 21, 2006.

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Rambles on Two Tons of Steel 8:12am

Review by Jerome Clark

As the DVD that accompanies the live package informs us, Two Tons of Steel started out as the Dead Crickets, a nod to the late fellow Texan Buddy Holly’s legendary band. That ended in 1996, when surviving Cricket Jerry Allison asked the band please not to do that. So the former Dead Crickets renamed themselves after a restored ‘56 Cadillac in a band member’s possession.

From a pure rockabilly outfit, Two Tons has evolved into … well, it hasn’t strayed all that far from its roots. Call its sound honkabilly, a jumpy, partyin’ countrified rock ‘n’ roll in thrall to Holly, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Billy Lee Riley, Charlie Feathers and Buck Owens. Two Ton Tuesday Live! captures the band in its natural environment, a South Texas dancehall, where every Tuesday, as the enjoyable DVD (mostly footage of one gig) documents, Two Tons plays to a large and appreciative (and appropriately lubricated) party crowd. Even its more famous label-mate Dale Watson, a honkytonk man who can’t seem to stop, shows up (unbilled and unnoted in the credits) on the dance floor. He’s the guy with the pompadour and tattoos, boppin’ with the woman with the big hair and tattoos.

If you grew up with rock ‘n’ roll, you’ll take to this, no questions asked. Nothing fancy or experimental is going on here, just the good old stuff served up Texas style. Two Tons, made up mostly of guys who look to be in their mid-30s to mid-40s, hails from San Antonio. Kevin Geil plays acoustic rhythm guitar, sings lead vocals and writes most of the originals, which are all good (”Vegas,” on the other hand, is terrific). There’s Dennis Fallon on electric lead, plus Ric Ramirez on acoustic bass, Chris Dodds on drums and Denny Mathis, the senior member, on steel. They’ve been together for years, and it shows. They couldn’t make a sound like this — both tight and loose — if they hadn’t been.

“Havana Moon” is a Geil original, not the Berry song. But “Secret Agent Man” is indeed the P.F. Sloan/Steve Barri number that anybody who remembers Johnny Rivers will recall with at least a tinge of guilt mixed with the pleasure. John Brim’s “Ice Cream Man” is the Chicago blues chestnut creatively reworked. Likewise, the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” (and really, who doesn’t?) is hilariously transformed into pure Holly in Two Tons’ steel hands. If none of this does anything for you, check your pulse.

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Viva! Terlingua! Nuevo! (Songs of Luckenbach Texas) 7:15am

PDR-4201vtn [discontinued; replaced by PDR-4201]

UPDATE: This release has been retitled Luckenbach! Compadres! (Songs of Luckenbach Texas)

For More Information: Press Release, PDR-4201 Reissue

Various Artists

Viva! Terlingua! Nuevo! (Songs of Luckenbach Texas)

Produced by Tommy Alverson and Walt Wilkins

Street: October 24, 2006 ON HOLD
Recorded live over two nights at Luckenbach Texas in January, 2006. Featurings performances by The (original) Lost Gono Band (Craig Hillis, John Inmon, Bob Livingston, Gary P. Nunn, Herb Steiner), Gonzos de Casa (Freddy “Steady” Krc, Bob Livingston, Bobby Rambo, Sam Hendricks, John Inmon, Craig Hillis), Morrison-Williams, Two Tons of Steel, The Derailers, McKay Brothers, Tommy Alverson, Walt Wilkins, Ed Burleson, john Arthur martinez, Kent Finlay, Jimmy LaFave, Brian Burns and Cory Morrow.

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Robert K Oermann reviews “Your Kiss” 6:12pm

DISClaimer (as published in MusicRow)

Texans dominated the listening session with Two Tons of Steel way out in front of fellow Lone Star
Staters Trey Clark and King Cone.

TWO TONS OF STEEL/Your Kiss
Writer: Monte Warden/Tony Raimey; Producer: Lloyd Maines; Publisher: Moonkiss/Muybuano, BMI; Palo Duro

—Talk about stacking the deck—with two of my favorite songwriters and one of the greatest of all country producers, how can you go wrong? I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that this neo-rockabilly outing has twangin’ guitar, a zippy rhythm track, a coolhillbilly vocal and a totally catchy melody.

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Palo Duro Label Releasing Records Hand Over Fist 2:03pm

Austin, TX - September 13, 2006 Palo Duro Records (“Country Music, Texas Spirit”) is in the midst of a rash of releasing and re-releasing records — debut efforts by new artists as well as albums by veterans on its roster of the past few years — as part of its distribution agreement with Fontana and to go the distance for music fans around the globe who can’t get enough of the sound of the Lone Star State.

For five years, Palo Duro has lived up to its original mission, to release the best of Texas-made music in a way that reflects the authenticity of its artists. Its releases are heard on radio stations from Austin to Boston to London and beyond. Its efforts are documented in the September issue of Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine, Spirit.

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Two Tons of Steel

Update on Kevin 8:24pm

Well after five long long long days in the hospital I’m out! Resting at home for the next few days before trying my luck on stage next week in Corpus Christi, Dallas and San Antonio. Take care and I’ll see you down the road. - K

Kevin’s Condition 3:55pm

Hey friends - I can’t believe that I am still in the hospital and even more that I missed my first New Years Show in my 14 years of playing music!!!! The doctor’s say I have a bad infection where my small and large intestines meet. They have taken more blood than a bad bar fight, the beds suck too. Got to eat for the first time in three day, soup! Well things could be worse, the guy across the hall died on Sunday. I hope to out of here soon. Thanks for everyones support and my deepest thanks to the guys in the band for pulling off New Years without me, I know it was not easy. See Ya Down The Road - K

ON THE RAOD TO Ok 2:18pm

Well we are on the road to do the Wormy Dog Salloon in OK City. Had a great show last night in Stephenville and drank some really bad vodka that Rhoades had. It’s making the day a little long but we are hoping for another great show tonight. The roads in Ok are really bad! See Ya

More new friends and tales from the road… 11:33am

How lucky are we?! Seems like I say this all the time to myself, but I’m constantly reminded of this everytime I meet a new friend in a town we’ve visited. Nothing is cooler than having folks take pics of us and post them online. Enter Charlie Stout, a photographer from Lubbock who recently came out to see us at the Buddy Holly Center and then later that night at The Blue Light. He took some great photos and has made them available online for everybody to see and even download - at no charge! Thanks Charlie for your generosity and hopefully we’ll see you again soon! If you get the chance, check him out online at http://www.charliestout.com and on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/charliestout.

I’d also like to give props to Linda and Roy Davis who caught is McKinney at Hank’s Texas Grill. These are some really great folks who travel around and catch us in different towns at different venues. Here are some photos taken by Linda that night. Thanks Linda for taking the time to send these to us and hopefully we’ll run into you again soon as well!

Hope everybody enjoys these photos and stay tuned right here for more updates from the road and pictures of our adventures. Take care now, and we’ll talk soon…

- Dodds

Showing some love to my good pal and fellow drummer Chad Gruver. Chad plays drums for fellow labelmate John Christopher Davis and came out and played with me on the last few tunes of our 2nd set at Hank’s!

Dennis - feeling it in a big way!

Rocking the night away - both onstage and on the dance floor…

Smilin’ and hammering it down in the cavernous corner!

Kevin - leadin’ the crowd with a ghoulish look…

Laughing and having a blast…

Chris “I-Eat-Guys-Bigger’n-You-For-Lunch” Rhoades…

WE WIN!!!

Rock you like a hurricane… 11:33am

Where to start? Has it really been 3 months? Man, I have to apologize! I meant to blog about every couple of weeks - or at least once a month! I’ve obviously failed to keep that up so I’ll do my best to catch everybody up on what’s been going on in my world…

Well, I can’t even try to pick up where I left off because it was so long ago that I last posted a blog. So, I guess I’ll just start fresh. The most recent adventure I have to report about is our trip across the Atlantic back to Zurich, Switzerland for the better part of a week. We left Tuesday morning, Oct. 9, arrived in Zurich on Wednesday morning and had the rest of the day off to decompress after a rather lengthy 10 hr. flight. After resting throughout the afternoon, we all ventured out into the evening air to see parts of Zurich that we had either missed or neglected on previous trips. Dennis, Rhoades, Kevin and Elena, and Denny and Ginger were all there and we spent a few hours together running around town. The air was much cooler there than it was back in Texas when we left the day before. We stopped at a little bar with not much space, but a lot of vibe. As you may well imagine, everything in Zurich is more expensive than it is back here in Texas (or maybe it just seems that way since the currency is so colorful… it’s easier to spend “play” money than it is to spend American currency back in the states…) At some point in time we all wound up back at the hotel and Dennis, Rhoades, and I hadn’t had our fill of the city in just a couple of hours. We decided to walk into an area where we suspected there might be some nightlife. We were right. After running around in the streets for awhile that first night in Zurich, we stumbled upon an American Harley bar — “Le Cactus” — and Rhoades couldn’t help but be attracted to it. (He blames it on his midwest/working class upbringing.) A really nice gal named “Flower” met us from behind the bar and after a few language stabs, settled on English. (As if we could speak anything else… stupid Americans!) We talked with her for a bit and enjoyed a few drafts when we met a colorful character named Richard who seemed nice enough (even if some of the crazy things that came out of his mouth were a little creepy). After trying to convince us that we needed to go with him to experience a great time in Zurich, we were pretty well sure we wanted nothing to do with that and Flower called him a cab and sent him on his way. Being the mature adults and responsible citizens we are, we decided to turn in early and head back to the hotel at a decent hour.

No wait…

Nope, that’s not how it went at all…

Oh yeah!

As it turns out, we stayed out ’til way past stoopid o’clock and missed the last tram back to the hotel. Oh well, what better part of Zurich to experience than that of the folks running around in the streets at all hours of the night. It was awesome! Although completely lost, we met a really nice guy named Matt (who had been a barfly all night at Le Cactus) and he volunteered to walk us back to our hotel. We wound up inviting him up to hang out for awhile longer and when Flower showed up, we wound up staying up all night long! New pals in Zurich and no rest for the weary! (or the stoopid!) Apparently the walls in this Suisse hotel are not nearly as soundproof as our American counterparts and we disturbed our neighbors.

All night long.

All of them.

As in, the entire floor. Now the saddest part of this is that we did nothing but sit around and talk all night long about all kinds of stuff. We loaded ‘em up with CD’s and had a merry time. It’s a good thing too, because Dennis and I have been known to bust out into a wrestling match with anybody who’s brave enough to take us on. I can only imagine how popular we would have been after a night of American wrestling… We nearly got ourselves kicked out of the hotel the next morning and had to promise the folks running the place that we’d shut up or else we were to find oursleves back in the streets. Oops! After sleeping in the next morning, we found we weren’t as bright and bushy tailed as we had been the night before and I personally didn’t do much of anything all that day (Thursday) before the show. I’m not sure if Dennis and Rhoades ventured out or not.

We had to be to the venue by about 4:00 or so that afternoon to setup and soundcheck before dinner. That first night’s performance was a lot of fun. The crowd on Thursday was considerably smaller than the crowds we’d have out for the next couple of nights, but they were certainly appreciative none the less. Seems like working in Europe is way easier since we don’t have to play nearly as long when we’re there. We certainly felt at home though. Matt and Jennifer Mosley showed up from Aberdeen, Scotland. Matt has been a long time fan of ours who used to come out to see us in Houston a lot before he moved with his lovely wife to the land of haggas, bagpipes, kilts, and the home of the caber toss. Jennifer insists that her husband is our “stalker”, but I like to think of him as our “hooligan”, and this was simply an away game for him… (Okay, whatever, just play along with me here…) It was good to see them both again and after two quick 45 minute sets, we were finished! (ROCK!) We didn’t waste anytime getting out of there either before heading back to the hotel and then venturing out once again down to our new haunt - Le Cactus. Once back at our bar, we were met at the door with the sound of our music playing over the loud speakers — and visions of oursleves on their TV. We had given Flower a copy of the DVD and she was playing it that night. Pretty cool. Reudi Hoffman, the bar owner, met us that night and was really cool to us. It was good to talk with him and feel welcome while we were so many miles away from home. Kevin and Elena joined us on this night’s adventure and helped us to close the place down for a second night in a row. Our previous night’s scout, Matt, was hanging around again and we all set off from Le Cactus afterhours to see what Zurich had left in store for us. After stopping in at another little place and conversing with some locals, I decided I’d had enough of our brand of tomfoolery and decided to head out on my own. I wanted to see Zurich at 4:00 am all by myself and see if I could make it home by my lonesome. What an awesome adventure that was. All by myself in Zurich in the middle of the night. (Well, not ALL by myself, there were lots of other folks out at that hour, most of whom I couldn’t understand due to the fact that I don’t speak any German…) I made it back to my room and once the rest of the gang caught up with me, we wound up staying up throughout the rest of the night where Dennis came to a keen observation… “I don’t know why we even have hotel rooms - It’s not like we ever use them…” That was really funny and would prove true throughout the rest of this trip.

The next day found us all sleeping in late again and not doing much until it was time for us to go back to work. It’s pretty easy to keep from feeling jetlagged when you tour the way Two Tons does in Zurich. See, the time change is 7 hours ahead over there and if you just stay up all night and don’t try to get any sleep until 7:00 am, it’s just like going to bed at midnight back home. Sleeping ’til 2:30 or 3:00 pm is like getting up at 7:30 or 8:00 am back home… That’s respectable, no? Well, that’s how I justified it anyway. Friday night’s performance brought Matt and Jennifer Mosley back out for his second away game of the three game tournament weekend. We invited our Suisse scout Matt, and our favorite bartender, Flower, out to the show on Friday. They hung out with Matt and Jennifer, and by the end of the night we had a pretty big entourage of Texans looking to have a good time in Switzerland! Even on her night off, Flower was really gracious in taking us all back down to Le Cactus (Matt and Jennifer had yet to have experienced all that Le Cactus had to offer), and we all had a great time playing the “Hammer” game. Reudi has a giant tree trunk about 3 feet wide and about 3 1/2 feet tall, and a tiny hammer that has a blunt face on one side and tapers to a thin edge on the other. The object is to hammer a 16 penny nail all the way into the top of the trunk using the thin edge of the hammer. This is hard enough using the thin side of the hammer — but you can’t really aim either. (Did I mention that?) You have to hold the head of the hammer against the side of the trunk and then swing it up and back down quickly to hit the head of the nail. I insisted to Flower that I was going to kick her butt (I’m such a proud Texan), but as it turns out, she was a Romanian pro. She’s obviously had lots of practice at this game because I didn’t fare so well. (I can just hear all my kids now, “Dad, you got beat by a GIRL!!!”) After closing Le Cactus down (once more), we all walked back to the hotel and fell asleep just before the sun came up.

Saturday morning came and went as I slept in and found only Rhoades in the hotel that afternoon. Dennis had ventured out with Denny and Ginger and eventually met up with Kevin and Elena for some Suisse sightseeing. Rhoades and I headed out for our own adventure and a little rhythm section bonding (No wait - did I say that out loud? Forget I said that…) Anyhow, we had a lot of fun walking around town and saw a lot of cool things that afternoon. We eventually stopped for a kebab (which was some of the best food I ate on the whole trip!) We were looking for street vendors, and that was as close as we got. After a short rest, we all found ourselves back together ready to rock our Suisse fans for one last night. Our last show of the trip was our best (in my opinion) and we really lit it up onstage that night. Matt and Jennifer were there for the third and final away game and Matt, starting to look pretty haggard at this point, made the observation that “flying from Scotland to see Two Tons in Switzerland may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in all actuality was sorta’ like flying from Houston to Canada” to see us perform. None the less, it was good to have a couple of Texans with us on the trip to make us feel at home. After Saturday night’s performance we hustled back down to Le Cactus to say our goodbyes to Reudi and Flower. Our scout, Matt, wasn’t around on Saturday. Seems he actually has to work… bummer… Rhoades and I were treated to a thrilling ride down to the joint with our new pals Matthius and ???. These are some rockabilly fans who were really cool and gracious enough to give us a lift from the venue straight down to Le Cactus. We all enjoyed a few more rounds of the “Hammer” game before calling it a night. Matthius and ??? were kind enough to take Kevin and Elena back to the hotel while Flower, Rhoades, and I walked home. Rhoades made a good friend on the street that night and even with the language barrier, both were able to communicate with the other what they were saying. It was pretty cool to see. Sometimes Rhoades acts big and tough, but as it turns out — he is… We came strolling into the hotel lobby right as the opening band from Holland was meeting to leave to fly back home at around 6:00 am. That was pretty funny. They must have thought we were pretty crazy after hearing about us nearly getting kicked out of the hotel, Rhoades’s stories about Texas, and then seeing us come home after being out all night long… You only live once, right? Why prolong it? I packed my stuff quick and had just enough time to get back down to meet the gang for our ride to the airport so we could fly out on Sunday morning. An 11 1/2 hr flight back home is almost bearable when you stay up all night the night before — you just sleep the whole time. And as it turns out, my theory on staying on Texas time didn’t work out quite like I had hoped. When we landed in Texas, I just felt like I had been beat up. (I’m a total rockstar, don’t cha’ know?) Our trip was a total success and if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creeks don’t rise, it looks like we’ll be back in Zurich in February of 2009. Thanks to all who came out to support us and especially to Matt and Jennifer Mosley for flying halfway around the world from halfway around the world to see us win it in overtime. A very special thanks to Mathius, ???, to our Suisse scout, Matt, to Reudi, and especially to Flower, who was so kind to all of us while we were there and making sure we were taken good care of. Hopefully we’ll see you all again someday soon.

Well, kids, that’s the trip as I experienced it. It was a lot of fun, and I think I’m finally caught up on my sleep. Er.. I never really got off of Texas time… or did I? In any case, things are back to normal and this may be the first trip in a long time where Crystal hasn’t called to tell me that one of the kids burned up in the fireplace or hurt themselves jumping off the roof… Stay tuned to the site for upcoming dates and check back here soon for my latest skewed take on all things Two Tons and don’t be a stranger - come say hello! We’ll talk again soon…

- Doddsy

Going over the pond 11:32am

Hey everyone! We are off to Zurich and are looking forward to seeing all our new friends that we have made over the past two years in Switzerland. It’s funny to think that a little band from San Antonio gets to do the things we do. I never dreamed in my whole life that we would get to do this. I guess that is what makes them dream. See Ya -