Study in Contrasts

This time both experiences will be good, as opposed to the one fab, one bad, in DC a few months ago. The first: rockabilly night at Mike's Dance Barn in Nashville, In. Wow. I don’t really have the words to describe how wonderful it was…great music, energetic crowd, creative and skilled dancers. Perfect, sigh.

I’ve said before that the rockabilly culture, for the most part, is music first, dancing second. The good part about that is the musicianship is spot on; it’s rare to find a bad rockabilly band. Most times you will hear some of the best played music anywhere. These folks know their instruments, know how to play with each other, know how to interpret the music, and know how to entertain.

The downside to music first is that rockabilly bands are not always concerned with dancers… sometimes the music is just too fast to dance to, other times tempos are switched mid song. Fun to listen to, hard to get your feet to obey. Two of the bands last night were like that. They were very good, but sometimes difficult to dance to.

There are, of course, exceptions, and Terry Lee and his Rockaboogie band is one of those. He and his band are expert musicians and they play with skill and rockabilly abandon. They put on a show that is hard to beat…Terry playing the keyboard is a treat for the eyes as well as the ears. But they ALSO are considerate of people who dance. They play varied paces: slow to fast, country to hard core ‘billy. Gary and I did WCS, ECS (triple and single), and of course our newly learned rockabilly swing. People that knew two step were doing that, and I also spotted a few couples doing night club. That’s pretty rare for a rockabilly band. What Terry Lee and his band receive in return is a very diverse crowd…young and old, listeners and dancers, skilled dancers and free form expression. Gary and I had a wonderful, magical evening. Hat’s off to them. I wish they played closer to Indy more often.

Tonight we’re off for our beloved Starlight ballroom with our favorite club, the Indy Boogie Dancers. The evening will be fun. It’s exciting to attend a wild rambunctious dance like last night, but also nice to go where you know what the first song will be. The same one. Every time. :-) The Boogie dances are at a slower, quieter, pace. We rarely get to dance rockabilly swing there but that’s OK…we need the rest after banging our bodies into submission last night. And, it’s also fun to concentrate on other dances.

And that’s why Gary and I love going to varied venues. You simply can’t get everything in one package. To be really really good at something you have to concentrate on a few things. Not that you can't have a wide variety, but I think you must have only a few specialties if you want to shine. When I go to a rockabilly night I know what I will hear, and I know it will be excellent. I don’t want or need them to play funk! But…neither do I want to only dance to one kind of music all the time. Gary and I love to swing to this kind of music, but we also love Latin, funk, and big band.

But I have to say, I never have as much fun as I do dancing to rockabilly.

Oh you sweet thing…
Do I what?
Will I what?
Oh baby you know what I like.