Photos/Writer: Rudy Lu
Old time rock and roll, as defined by Toombs Dixon is music that existed in its raw American form from 1953-63. That is pre-Beatles music. Music before the British Invasion took the US and the world by storm. This music has been covered and changed by many artists, the originals only listened to by enthusiasts and scholars of popular music. Toombs Dixon has made creating this music in its raw form its mission, on this particular performance they featured steel, lap steel guitarist extraordinaire Cindy Cashdollar and extended their musical timeline back to the early 1900s for their material.
The band warmed up the stage with the 1956 “Let the Good Times Roll” by Shirley and Lee,“A Certain Girl”, the 1961 original written by Allen Toussaint , the Everly Brothers 1960 hit “When Will I Be Loved” and Marv Johnson’s “You Got What It Takes”1960. Although the public has largely forgotten these originals, later singers were clearly listening as Warren Zevo, Linda Ronstadt and the Dave Clark performed these at later times,
Cindy Cashdollar is a legendary musician. Although originally from Woodstock, she has been a member of Texas band Asleep at the Wheel, she has collaborated with country greats Willy Nelson, Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard and a long list of others including Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams and Van Morrison. This particular evening she is heard on pre rhythm and blues tunes. A beautiful version of “Stardust” was among the songs. Hank Williams (Sr)’s “Lovesick Blues” from the late 40s showcased the country influences on today’s sound complete with yodeling. The wayback machine was really stretched when the band played WC Handy’s Memphis Blues from 1909.We were brought to more modern times with Carl Perkins’ penned Elvis hit “I Forgot To Remember To Forget” , which was covered by the Beatles in a truly deep cut ( Live At The BBC). The original arrangement of “Fever” , a single by r&b singer Little Willie John, is markedly different in style from the smoldering classic by Peggie Lee.
The show concluded with Bo Diddley’s “Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover”.
Toombs Dixon derives their name from 2 major songwriters of their target period Rudy Toombs and Willie Dixon. Although efforts are made to completely study the original songs, even going as far as tracking down the original charts, the band’s sound is definitely not like a museum, it is full of that breakthrough energy that this music was a rebellion to an extremely conformist society. Lead vocals were enthusiastically shared by drummer Rich Pagano, guitarist Jack Petruzzulli with Ben Zwerin as backup.
The difference in instrumentation is quite striking with modern times. Piano plays a more prominent role in the sound, there was plenty of room for pianist Peter Yarin to stretch and offer glides and exciting percussive sounds. Rich Pagano played much of the set with brushes on the snares and cymbals rather than drumsticks, making for a lighter sound on top end(with the exception of Bo Diddley). The band did retain the sound of electric bass played by the versatile Ben Zwerin, this made the music more danceable. Cindy’s multiple lap steel and pedal steel guitars added different dimensions to the sound. For some numbers she played a hollow body lap steel that had a full and gorgeous sound.
The local has only been open since the fall and is a work in progress. This performance inaugurated a stage for the front, Partially crowdsourced, it added to the visuals of the hall and I’m sure improved the acoustics.
The next performance will be blues ragtime performers Jerron Paxon and Dennis Lichtman performing African American music from the 1920s on March 2nd. Hope to see you there.
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