dave karnes, clint strong, drew phelps, oaklin bloodworth

just came home (early -- schoolnight, and my sweetie's got an important mtg in the a.m.) from machenry's, where i witnessed what had to be the hottest band playing here in the fort on this particular night: clint strong, a gtrist guaranteed to make the hottest axe-slinger you know sound like a terrible tyro, combining as he does the fleetness and facility of a joe pass with the slidin', smearin', country soul of a pedal steel player; drew phelps, a bassist blessed with prodigous melodic imagination and rhythmic force; oaklin bloodworth, a warbler with a wizened, world-weary persona and deep songbag of ballads 'n' blues; and dave karnes, a force of nature on drums whose gig this was, who says this is one time he's happy to be violating art blakey's dictum that "if the drummer isn't the best musician in the band, it isn't a jazz band." these cats are musical conjurers, so deep into their art that they give palpable form and life to the classic structures, but not so intense that they can't have fun with it, cracking themselves and each other up with their own musical witticisms. this is high art that hits with the forward motion of a speeding train, and woe to the muso who slacks off for even a second. if you weren't there, you missed it, but you can catch clint and dave opening for titanic jazz-rawk gtr legend allan holdsworth at dan's silverleaf in denton on saturday, february 18th, and dave will be back at machenry's on thursday, february 23rd. if you dig musical alchemy of any stripe, you owe it to yrself.

ADDENDUM: the holdsworth thang might be a private party rather than an opening slot. feh. will write more when i know more.