The Steel Wheels Coming to Town

If you are fortunate enough to live in or near Marlinton in Pocahontas County, WV, make your way to the Opera House this Saturday, November 12 to see The Steel Wheels in concert at 7:30 pm.  I’ll be there!  I’ve been a fan of these guys for a while now, but this is the first chance I’m getting to see them live.  I can’t wait.  I learned about them from Bicycle Times magazine’s June 2010 issue which reported on their  pedal-powered, seven night, concert tour.  They strapped their instruments and merchandise to their bikes and headed from town to town, covering nearly 300 miles.  This wasn’t some stunt, followed by a support vehicle in case they got tired and needed a lift; this was a genuine concert tour on bicycles.  In fact, they did another this year.  As I read I learned that they were based in Harrisonburg, VA, a place I knew well having gone to James Madison University for my first two years of college.

Those two things alone were reason enough reason to like these guys.  They hail from Virginia, and they tour by bicycle.  (Not always, of course.  They have a national following, and a bicycle tour across the entire country is impractical, at best.)

They were praiseworthy, but were they any good?  Now I had yet to check out the music.

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Robert Earl Keen, Bruce Robison and Todd Snider in Foxboro

The Rose Hotel

The Rose Hotel

I almost didn’t go to the concert tonight at the Showcase in Foxboro. It’s a school night, the weather is crappy, and tickets are expensive. I’d only recently discovered Robert Earl Keen and had been impressed by his album Rose Hotel, but I didn’t know the other two acts on the bill, Todd Snider and Bruce Robison. I checked out a few tracks by each of them on YouTube and Lastfm, but didn’t have much time to explore more than that. All in all it just wasn’t worth it. Then I got free tickets, and all I had to do was hang some posters and pass out some stickers. Well, I love live music, so what was I supposed to do? Off I went.

I am glad I did. It was a fantastic show. I’d never been to the Showcase before, but it’s nice venue with good acoustics and even decent food. Given that this was an acoustic show, the way a room conducts sound is important. But ultimately it is all about the performers, and these guys were great.

Robert Earl Keen was on the marquee as the headliner.  Known as a singer/songwriter, he is, indeed, an engaging storyteller, not only in his songs but introducing them. It makes for a good show.  Not to mention the fact that their just really good songs.  When man can stand on a stage with just a spotlight and an acoustic guitar and hold the audience’s attention, he’d better hope that he can check off at least three of the following: Continue reading