Once a month for several years the Dirty Shirts have been anchoring the High Noon’s Tuesday pre-Gomeroke happy hour schedule, almost to the point that people are starting to take them for granted. Their usual first Tuesday show for May had consisted of a pretty sparse crowd, fewer folks even than had come out back in December on the night of the blizzard that shut the city down. Thankfully for their first ever CD release show a good crowd turned out, there were even a few people who admitted they’d never seen the Dirty Shirts before.
Joining the band for the occasion were a couple of special guests. Johnson & Clark, the alter egos of the Cork & Bottle String Band’s Greg Dierks and another familiar face whose name I don’t know turned up to use the Shirts as the backing band for a pair of songs. The first “Step Out of the Car, Ma’am” is a favorite of the happy hour band, always covered well by impossibly tall upright bass player Pat Logterman. Amusingly, Johnson & Clark weren’t quite as practiced, laughing their way through a couple of flubs. The second was from their new release California Country, also available tonight. The band’s lead singer Jeff Burkhart didn’t seem to believe Dierks when he said the name of the song was “Domo Arigato,” asking him to repeat it several times. Sounding nothing like the Styx song that popularized the phrase, their “Japanese for thank you” song tore it up with the help of the band. The other guest tonight was fiddler Brian O’Donnell who sat in with the band for most of the evening. Introducing one of the songs as “one that Brian played on for the record,” Burkhart laughed before continuing, “that means he’s actually played this one before.”
The new record Two Dollar Turpentine is a collection of originals from a band that is probably better known as a classic country cover band. It’s impressive that the songs they wrote are so steeped in that sound I didn’t realize that many of the tunes I’ve heard them do are originals. Apparently, Burkhart has an old country soul and the pure and honest voice to go with it. He’s well served by the other members of his excellent band, many of whom are familiar Madison musicians. Drummer Colin Bazsali and guest O’Donnell are both in the Cajun Strangers and also play with Burkhart in the Barley Brothers. Logterman and lap steel player Kurt Kellesvig are members of the Cork & Bottle String Band. The latter’s skill on the steel gives their sound much of its authenticity, while lead guitar player Ted Weigl is quietly impressive.
Hopefully they made a few new fans tonight in addition to selling a few CDs.
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