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Show Wednesday, April 28,1976 Page 7 7 v , ... AW Mesne Wakerings Mr. Personality Bruce Mullen to C est Bon Lounge Coming By Johnson Louis It was the best of contests, Uwas.the worst of contests, it was the age of maturity, it was the age of Muckers, it was the epoch of Take It Off, it was the epoch of Leaving It On. The winter of snow sports melted past, it was the spring of scrums and of rugby parties. It was the time to toss the parka and show a T-shirt. Early for a Park City night the C'est Bon Lounge was swarming and loud and Standing (or sitting on tables) Room Only. Hundreds of hands read Boogie under black light. There were the diehard skiers in mourning, and the Muckers as hosts. Up were the drinkers from the Dead Goat, and the drinkers from the. Red Bell came to encourage a favorite daughter. From everywhere drinkers drove. There were the resort guests off their rock skis, a few naughty Mormons up from Salt Lake, and a curious group called the Alta Tooters. Even some unattached hunters were there. Hunting for a summer girlfriend. Hunting for a mistress. Hunting for a nightly rental. And, of course, there were girls. More than you would see in the audiences around Place Pigalle, more than you would see anywhere watching others Go-Go. And they danced for a while to a good band. And they drank for a while to wandering conversation. And they spoke of the human drama of T-shirt . competition, the thrill of victory and the thrill of tfldefeat: Z".';".1" r"''r ' 'V:"'"C ' " : And those outside squeezed and strained but witnessed nothing. Afterall, Muckers will be bouncers. You might say it's in their blood. You might say its in their DNA. You might say its in the raw meat wedged and hanging between their teeth. Then the band went mute and the judges scrambled for their positions and the rest of the audience scrambled in behind or raised themselves them-selves up like periscopes on tables and chairs. The master of ceremonies, in the ten gallon hat, called for contestants and contestants were shoved to the front. Each bared her feet and then danced. They danced as they would at the White House, as they would at Cotillion-, as they would at a sister's wedding. They drew zeros and ones from the judges. The crowd was hootless. Then went a thin sweater and things livened as the Red Bell's favorite daughter offered herself as the T-shirt td beat. .",' :- v. , ; But no one could beat her. She countered well. And the Muckers, with half the gate and half the bar, made out like Muckers.' People will do almost anything for a good cause. They '11 drink, dance:. .Oh, they'll even watch an amateur striptease. Sweet charity! Country Music's Mr. Personality, Bruce Mullen will be appearing at the C'est Bon Lounge May 6-9: - In 1968 Bruce started his recording career with Dot Records in Hollywood, California under the direction of Bonnie Guitar. He later moved in 1971 to Capitol Records , and a close association with Buck Owens Enterprises, and with these two labels, he gained national recognition and valuable experience traveling with many well known artists. In 1973 Bruce Mullen signed a recording contract with "Chart Records" of Nashville, Nash-ville, Tennessee, where he was first nationally charted with hit release, "Auctioneer Love". Today at the age of 25 Bruce . Mullen with his - recordings and his powerful bandstand personality and showmanship, is headed for sure, fire stardom, as evidenced by record breaking crowds at every - performance, per-formance, and ; repeat bookings at every location he appears at. He appears regulary at' such clubs a Cactus Pete's in Jackpot Nevada, Mr. Lucky's and The Terrace Ballroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, plus other prestige locations from the west c6ast to the midwest. Bruce Mullen has the uniqe quality of being able to hold his audience captive with his superb night club act, which includes numerous im-. personations and a limitless selection of country .music songs. STATE FART.H - Sl U 3 Wniidto Number One Homeowners Insurer More people insure their homes with State Farm than with any other company. That's because they've - found State Farm offers the best in service, protection and economy. Give me a call. I'll be glad to give you all the details. Tom Ligare Silver King Bank 649-9161 649-8441 by Jay Meehan . The "Honeysuckle Rose," an old greyhound bus carrying Hoyt Axton and his musical friends, hit town last Thursday and Park City 1 will probably never be the same. For over two hours Mr. Axton and his eight piece volcano erupted with some hard driving, tequila drinking, country-blues rock and roll. It was an orgiastic reward for Park City's collective auditory nerve, and the perfect prescription for "spring fever." Fun was the order of the day. The band featured Commander Cody's rhythm section of "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow on bass and Lance Dickerson on drums, coupled with some tasty steel and guitar. But it was obviously the three beautiful ladies occupying stage right who set the tone for the evening. They provided intricate in-tricate background harmonies, took turns on solos, and generally just moved around real nice. It was a week chock-full of such great concerts, con-certs, it was hard to maintain any semblance of critical perspective. Thursday had Waylon Jennings in Logan, Hoyt Axton at the C'est Bon on Friday and the super-talented "Boys of the Lough" at the University of Utah this past Sunday evening. The logistical problem of getting from one show to the next was even fun, except for the Salt Lake drive during Sunday's blizzard. The most interesting similarity between these shows, was that the respective promoters chose Utah groups to open all three. And the main story out of all this just might be that when put up for display alongside the more famous . groups, Utah's home-grown bands, the Blacksmith Fork and Spoon Band, the Weber River Wranglers, and the Deseret String Band, came up looking mighty fine. ' It was my first experience with BF & SB, although Shelly, their fiddler, performed at last summer's Saratoga Fiddle and Banjo Contest at Utah Lake. Their material. consisted mainly of swing and classic C & W tunes, and had over 3,000 screaming Waylon Jennings fans on their feet most of the evening. The Waylors' even flipped out. Waylon, of course, was Waylon. ; Great! The fugitive outlaw doing all his hits. An hour interview with Richie Albright, longtime drummer with the Waylors, will probably turn up in some future column.- The current Waylors and. "the best energy I've ever seen" according to Richie, are: Ranee Wasson on 12-string, Gordon Payne on electric rhythm and harp, Ralph Mooney on pedal steel, Sherm Hays on bass, Richie on drums and ol' Waylon doing the lead chicken-pickin' on his leather covered telecaster. Meanwhile, back in Park City: The fantastic opening set by the Weber River Wranglers to Hoyt Axton Hoyt Axton certainly deserves more than passing mention. For about two hours the local citizenry was treated to some of the finest nostalgic jazz-country swing and bluegrass. Besides dishing out their regular fare of Bob Wills and Hank Williams, they laid down such classics as Martin, Bogen and Armstrong's Let's have a Party, the great "Ain't Misbehaving," -and the Phil Harris jive-ditty "That's What I Like About the South." Beautiful people doing beautiful music. . Both the Waylon concert and Hoyt's show electric happenings. They were fun, celebrative and although there were attempts to stifle it, they were participatory. I say this as a clarification to the next statement: The finest music of the week was provided by the "Boys of the Lough," and the "Deseret String Band" at Kingsbury Hall Sunday evening. The audience was very receptive and relatively large considering con-sidering half of them arrived by dogsled. The DSB is once again a five piece group with two fiddles, thanks to the addition of Ron Kane, who also plays locally with the "Bunkhouse Orchestra." Besides re-opening the band's fiddle harmonies, Ron also gives them a broader vocal feel, as demonstrated by his solos and duets with Skip Gorman. A good example of the latter is their version of the "Blue Sky Boys" bouncy "Are You From Dixie?" They also included a ragtime piece (Home Brew Rag ), and Rich McLure, guitarist and stage spokesman, credited Ron's influence for this innovation. Although much of their music is rooted deeply in the Scots-Irish tradition, it is becoming more evident that the Deseret String Band views itself as an American music band. Their concert was a tribute to southern mountain music, square ' dance tunes, and songs from the late, great state ' of Deseret. ';r- i?-. ' The "Boys of the Lough" are four fellows from the British Isles (two from Ireland, one from England and one from the Shetland Islands near Scotland).. Their set was one of the most completely com-pletely entertaining shows I have ever witnessed; wit-nessed; their humor being as finely honed as their musical virtuosity, with short anecdotes used to explain the origins of the various tunes: (eg. to intro a fiddle tune about a haystack: "In America you have the drive-in; in Ireland we Their music was strong, 'while beautifully lyrical and encompassed the entire British Isle folk gamut: from unbelievably intricate fiddle-flute-tin whistle medleys to "pub poems." If their awesome musical abilities hadn't been so enjoyable, they would have been frightening. If you'd like to catch it on vinyl, they have a couple of LP's Out on American labels, one on Rounder and one on Philo. Photo by Quicksilver STAtl fIM Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. f. STATE FARM FIRE AND CASUALTY COMPANY Horn Office; Bloomington, Illinois TREASURE MOUNTAIN INN COFFEE SHOP MOM HOURS 8:00 A.M. TO 2:00 P.M. FEATURING DAILY SPECIALS AND A SOUP AND SALAD BAR. SUNDAY HUNT BREAKFAST 11:00A.M. TO2:00P.M. Estab. 1869 ripRliSALT X , gOOUTFITTERSj I 649-9123 1240 PARK AVENUE A k t , H ' .J Uta; i' ! A ' 0 & I |