Page 8
The Battalion
Thursday, February 1,1995
THE GK&PEVW
201 Live Oak College Station, TX 77840
BehfndLa Quinta
696-3411
Patty Loveless, country’s latest rising star, to open show
Living legend Strait returns to G. Rollie
ARIHII
7-i Vj+m, > 1 kv-w*
(NinTendor)
• Free Memberships
• Players & Camcorder
Also Available
Movies on Tuesday &
Thursday including
NEW RELEASES
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693-5789
Located on the corner of Texas & SW Parkway
in the Winn Dixie Center, College Station
MAJOR CREDIT
CARDS
ACCEPTED
By JOHN RIGHTER and
TODD STONE
Of The Battalion Staff
■e
The Presses will be hot on
February 14!
That’s when The Battalion
is publishing its annual
lovelines page.
For just $6 you can:
•proclaim your devotion to your honey
• reveal your secret heartthrob
•or simply say “I Love You”
To place your loveline
come by the English Annex.
Deadline is February 9
TWO PIZZAS
ON THE DOUBLE.
Call Us!
260-9020
4407 Texas Ave.
693-2335
1504 Holieman
822-7373
Townshire
Shopping Ctr.
2 PIZZAS
1 TOPPING
only
$1 Q95
Call Domino’s Pizza today
and get TWO fresh baked
12” pizzas with one deli
cious topping for only
$10.95, plus tax!
Additional toppings avail
able for just a little extra.
Offer expires Feb. 28,1990
Valid at participating stores
only. Not valid with any other
coupon or offer. Prices subject
to applicable sales tax. Deliv
ery area limited to ensure safe
driving. Our drivers carry less
than $20.00. ©1989 Domino's
Pizza, Inc.
George Strait needs no introduc
tion to country music fans.
Friday night, the two-time Coun
try Music Association Male Vocalist
of the Year will perform at G. Rollie
White Coliseum as a presentation of
MSG Town Hall Concerts.
Opening for Strait and his Ace In
The Hole Band is 1988’s Best New
Country Artist, Patty Loveless.
Strait, a Pearsall native known for
his old-fashioned style of Texas
honky-tonk and southern swing,
bested the previous A&M ticket sales
of R.E.M. and Restless Heart, selling
out in a matter of days.
He launched his 11-album career
nine years ago after graduating
from Southwest Texas State Univer-
the house (filled mostly with adoring
women). What pressure.
Loveless, on the other hand, has
had a more difficult climb to her
present position as the latest country
music diva.
A Nashville performer since age
14, she got her first break replacing
Loretta Lynn in The Wilburn Broth
ers. Marriage and high school side
tracked her until the mid-80s, when
she reembarked on a singing career.
After her third release for MCA
records, Honky Tonk Angel, Love
less is now at the top of Nashville’s
industry on the strength of her num
ber-one single “Timber, I’m Falling
In Love.”
sity.
Since
then Strait has garnered
fame through his trademark croons
of yesteryear country flavor, his
clean-cut good looks and his authen
tic country lifestyle.
Strait is the real thing. A cowboy
from birth, he owns a ranch, has a
degree in agriculture studies, lists
steer-roping as his favorite hobby
and endorses Tony Lama Boots.
The guy bleeds dust and hay.
As an artist, Strait has found a for
mula that works and has stuck to it.
He lends little effort to the mechan
ics of his albums, instead employing
Nashville’s best young writers and
most capable producers.
. His song style is an indelible mix
of tearful ballads and hokey swings
that cry of traditional giants such as
Bob Wills.
As a performer, he has vaulted
from being a regular on the Texas
night club circuit to the single big
gest draw in country music.
He is the one artist who has been
able to break down the wall of coun
try gentility. Strait takes one step
and he is gua
Loveless has just begun a 75-date
tour with Strait. She is also finishing
her fourth album, which will be re
leased in May.
In a telephone interview Wednes
day, Loveless spoke of her time with
Strait and her rise in success.
“Touring with George has been
great,” she says. “He sells out every
where, so I know I’ll get to perform
in front of a lot of people. I’m very
fortunate to get this exposure.
“The only bad part is that I’m a
loner, and now I don’t have time to
be alone. I really enjoy the time I get
to spend at home when we have
breaKS.”
One of the factors that prompted
Loveless’ return to singing was the
rediscovery of the traditional coun
try style, popularized by performers
such as Strait.
guaranteed to bring down
“The return to traditional country
music is great,” she says. “It exposes
younger people to the older, great
songs, and returns a style that had
been largely forgotten.
“There is definitely a variety in
country music with people like K.T.
Oslin, Dwight Yoakam and Randy
Travis.”
Loveless plans to continue touring
in support of Honky Tonk Angel
until she finishes the shows with
Country singer Patty Loveless
Strait. She is then scheduled to em
bark on a Solo tour to promote her
next album.
Still, the exposure with Strait is
tremendous for an artist teetering
on the brink of stardom like Lovel
less.
And for A&M, Friday night’s pal
formance is an excellent opportunu l
to catch country music’s hottestan|
But then, you already know that
House Levelers’antics likely to bring down house
By JOHN RIGHTER
Of The Battalion Staff
‘We’re opening? Well, then you can expect
02
undiluted madness for 45 minutes,” says bass
player Pete Ficht upon finding out his group,
House Levelers, will not headline this weekend.
“When we play for three hours we tend to
stretch out the drunken buffoonery, but 45 min
utes calls for a lot of jumping around, spitting
beer, falling over and just having fun,” he says.
Saturday night’s double bill at the Texas Star
Tavern features an interesting live pairing.
Opening for Austin’s Vanguards, a veteran
blues-rockabilly band, New Orleans’ House Lev
elers are froth a slightly different spectrum.
Unlike the seasoned Vanguards, a classic hard
working band that has paid its dues and finally is-
getting recognition, the House Levelers have
stumbled to their current position.
A three-piece band composed of Ficht, guitar
ist Grayson Capps and drummer Sterling Roig,
the band bases its sound on Capps’ amped acous
tic guitar and Roig’s stripped-to-the-basics drum
kit. The result is an original brand of thrash-folk.
“We’re not instrument-based,” Ficht explains.
“There is rarely a second when one of us is not
singing. We have to play short, compact songs
’cause Grayson and I aren’t good enough musi
cians to do a worthwhile solo.
“It definitely makes our music different from
most other groups and places the emphasis on
our lyrics, where it should be.”
Their lack of musical ability has not fazed the
trio. In fact, the band has capitalized on it.
Instead of the usual mastering of cover songs,
Ficht and Capps began by writing their own
songs. .
“Grayson and I started writing our songs be
cause we cidhldn’t play any covers,” Ficht says.
“We didn’t know how to. We took the opposite
route of doing songs since we weren’t good
enough to learn other band’s stuff and instead
focused on creating our own material.”
Playing their musical ignorance to the hilt, the
band first performed with a percussionist who
played the pink flamingo.
That’s right, the House Levelers hold the dis
tinction of being the first band to feature a drum
mer who whacked away at a set of Lone Star beer
bottles and a tambourine with a pink flamingo.
Somewhere, Neil Peart is experiencing heart fail-
try to hide it, but instead play off it. I thinktlJ
audience appreciates that.”
Capps and Ficht claim that much “drunk
buffoonery” and hearty laughter is in store foi
those at the Tavern this weekend. 1 wonder i!|
professional-minded Hugh Stearns (a Texas Surf
Tavern owner, who prefers seasoned bandi
knows what he has gotten himself into.
Unfortunately, the following tale of how tk|
name House Levelers came about (and how
was originally Cliff Fauver House Levelers) won!
ease Stearns’ stomach.
“The fans loved this idea of a guy drumming
on a stack of beer bottles with this stupid-looking
pink flamingo,” Ficht says. “It was really crazy
that some band would do this. They liked him
(original flamingo player Jay Scully) more than
Grayson and I.”
Obviously, the band enjoys live performances.
Capps believes that fact sets House Levelers
apart from other bands.
“Playing live is what the House Levelers are all
about,” he says. “Our stripped-down sound
comes off as simple, but powerful. It’s real music
the audience can relate to.
“Plus, I feel the audience relates to us as peo
ple and performers. When we screw up we don’t
T
this emblem with ‘Cliff Fauver’s House Levelen
Mobile, Alabama’ on it,” Ficht says. “Thisideaof
a company that went around and leveled houstj
destroyed things for a living, was fantastic ant
absurd.
“We thought, ‘This is great. We have to nan*
our band after this guy Cliff.’ For a while we in
vented this Cliff persona that served as our gum
He was our spiritual leader and our sets featurd
songs and stories about Cliff. He became
symbol.
“We finally dropped the Cliff Fauver part be
cause our manager was afraid we might get sued
when this guy found out we had hats and t-shirti
with his company’s emblem on it.”
As an entertainment critic, I shouldn’t heal
lowed to endorse a disaster like the one I thinll
will occur Saturday night. But somehow, I haveaj
feeling it will be quite amusing.
I
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