19-Year Old Son for Sale. Cheap!
Ronnie Hayward Trio
The SouthHill Candy Shop
Vancouver, B.C.
Saturday, December 7, 1996
Review by Gary 'pigboy' Swartz
Photography by Suzanne Goodwin
It was a sort of catch all evening: check out a venue,
do a review and sneak in some long overdue family service. You
see, while other dads were teaching their sons the skills of hockey
and baseball (boring), I was patiently, most patiently, waiting
(and practicing diligently) until my eldest grew old enough for
cold beer, live music and smoke-filled clubs. If two out of three
ain't bad, after 19 years (plus the few months he spent exploring
dance and strip clubs with his misguided pals), have a cigar,
I'm a father!
I say two out of three because the SouthHill isn't smoke-filled
(we know better than that nowadays, don't we?) and it isn't exactly
a club. Café or bistro might be a more appropriate description.
But cozy, comfortable and relaxing. (You go to the counter to
order -- no wait-person interrupting conversations and pressing
you to consume vast quantities. Great for bonding with friends,
lovers or, I might add, family.) The beer is good, and affordable,
and there's not even a cover. The music is definitely live.
And, to my mind, alternative in the truest sense of the word.
Folk. Jazz. Bluegrass. Rockabilly.
Which is why I officially was there. Acoustic bassist/vocalist
Ronnie Hayward, together with electric guitarist Darwin Fisher
and rhythm guitarist Pete Turland, the Ronnie Hayward Trio, are
making a bit of a name for themselves around town in rockabilly
circles -- and in Europe as well. It's easy to see why. Hayward looks
the part. Lanky with a haircut by someone who thinks unisex is
a phone company.
More importantly, Hayward sounds the part, offering up
a good mix of covers and originals -- songs in that long lost,
innocent, minimalist 50's vein. Tunes with titles like "Brand
New Red High Heels" or "Wild About You Baby" and
lyrics like "You can have her, I don't want her, She didn't
love me anyway" or "Asked for a drink of water, She
brought me gasoline." Ah, true love. All rendered in a voice
with an edgy quality closely reminiscent of Hank Williams -- Senior,
not Junior. Proving, if nothing more, although it is more,
that, trace your musical roots back far enough --
80's, 60's, 40's, 20's -- and we all swung out of the same
musical family tree.
Except maybe junior and me.
The SouthHill and other similar off-the-beaten-track
live music venues are now something he and his friends, emphasis
on friends, will begin to explore. Beer and similar beverages
were never in dispute. Less-than-mainstream kinds of music are
even up for grabs. Like maybe some folk, blues or bluegrass.
But rockabilly, even good rockabilly, is just a bit too...
So much for the joys of parenting. I'm thinking
of adopting. Hell, I may even start smoking again. And if I
can convince the SouthHill to toss a bit of sawdust on the floor...
They don't call them the good old days for nothing. Just ask
Ronnie Hayward.
First published in Drop-D Magazine on December 20, 1996
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