Before anything I must apologize. This article has taken much too long in the writing. Who wants to hear about holiday parties in mid-February? But in this case I think the party is worth mentioning no matter how far into the year it is now. That's because the Holiday Hoedown that took place at the Canal Club this past December was much more than just a bunch of great local country bands getting together to celebrate the holidays. It was the kickoff of the River City Barn Dance, which will hopefully become a longstanding Richmond tradition.

The Barn Dance is the brainchild of Andy Vaughan, known locally for his stint in Hamburger James as well as his current band Andy Vaughan & the Driveline. The idea is to hold monthly or bimonthly country shows at various venues around Richmond. With the recent or impending close of many of the venues that currently showcase Richmond's local country bands, Andy was concerned that there would be a lack of avenues for those bands to play their music for the fans that are most definitely still here. What was needed, he saw, was a regular gathering of Richmond's country community, both fans and musicians. While the name Barn Dance may not be entirely accurate in the details it does convey the spirit of the endeavor.

The first of these events took place quite appropriately in the upstairs of the Canal Club. It's a rather large space with structural pillars studded throughout the dance floor and exposed beams in the ceiling. All in all a decent inner-city approximation of a barn. Unfortunately the evening of the show turned out to be one of those miserably wet and cold days that this area is so fond of throwing at its inhabitants in the early winter, but despite the weather I bundled up and trudged the 1.5 miles down to Shockoe Bottom. Fortunately I found that most of the other folks who had planned on attending where even less phased by the weather in their automobiles than I had been on foot. And while the crowd appeared a bit thin when I first arrived, it had really blossomed by the end of the night.

The bands that night were some of the best this city has to offer in the country vein. Loversville kicked the evening off to a bit of a slow start, but that's classic country for you: slow and mournful, and they did it perfectly. Up second was Lee Harris & Country Sunshine. I had not seen these guys before though I had heard of them and heard them play live on the radio. Lee Harris also hosts one of my favorite radio shows called merely The Lee Show which airs from 9-11 PM on Tuesdays on WRIR. But enough about the band, what about their music? It's a high energy affair. Still keeping with the country notes that Loversville brought in slow, Country Sunshine ramped up the tempo and reached for the other end of the country spectrum.

After this the Slack Family took the stage and went with a different approach entirely. Following electrified and loud country, they walked on stage all acoustic with a typical bluegrass lineup of guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass. And that is exactly what they played. The Slack Family are one of the best bluegrass bands in Richmond, effortlessly meshing their instrumentation into a rich harmony that can't help but make you feel good no matter how shitty the weather may be. The final band of the show was Andy Vaughan & the Driveline. With Jerry Renshaw wailing away at the Telecaster, they are about as high energy as a country band can get, and it was exactly what the Hoedown needed at that point in the evening. They finished up their set with a double encore and the first ever River City Barn Dance was over. I can only hope there will be plenty more in the future.

Loversville.net
myspace.com/LeeHarrisandCountrySunshine
SlackFamily.com
AndyVaughanMusic.com

By Editor (Managing) and Correspondent: Robin Marschak

Robin Marschak was born and raised in Richmond, VA. After a brief attempt at attending an engineering school in Claremont, CA he returned home to study English at VCU, an endeavour he is currently still engaged in. One thing that has remained unchanging throughout his life is a love of music. He was raised on local bands such as the Ululating Mummies and Dogs New Clothes as well as more classic mainstream bands such as the Beatles and the Grateful Dead. As a teen his tastes shifted towards the punk scene and bands such as TSOL, Operation Ivy, and Rancid, and while he maintains a deep love of this style of music he has broadened his listening palette quite a bit in recent years especially into the realms of country and old time music. His favorite bands currently are Popebear, a blues-funk fusion band out of Pasadena, CA, the Hot Seats, a string band from Richmond, and the No BS! Brass Band, also from Richmond. As far as more national acts go he tries to catch shows by bands like Umphrey's McGee, Old Crow Medicine Show, and the Belleville Outfit whenever possible.