{"id":19161,"date":"2014-11-20T18:24:44","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T23:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=19161"},"modified":"2015-11-10T12:15:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T17:15:44","slug":"kudzu-kings-20th-anniversary-show-at-the-lyric-on-november-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/kudzu-kings-20th-anniversary-show-at-the-lyric-on-november-28\/","title":{"rendered":"Kudzu Kings 20th Anniversary Show at The Lyric on November 28"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KudzuKings-1994-2\"<\/a>Kudzu Kings<\/strong> began their reign on a stretch of Harrison Street that descends east of Lamar down to South 14th through and into Oxford\u2019s arguably greatest band venue, fostering ground for a rockin\u2019 Southern music culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-1994\"<\/a>At the top of the hill, Proud Larry\u2019s<\/strong>; at the bottom, The Gin<\/strong>\u2014the matriarch of Oxford\u2019s bar scene\u2014and in between was Ireland\u2019s <\/strong>(later Murff\u2019s<\/strong>, and now Frank & Marlee\u2019s<\/strong>). While Ireland\u2019s has been unjustly derided as a \u201cblue-collar bar\u201d and because of its lack of pretention (pool tables, dart boards, and Lance snacks) had its share of bubbas bellied up to the bar, at any given time you\u2019d find people from all walks of life there swilling beer (among them Larry Brown<\/strong>) and at night listening to some of the best music in Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-TateDave\"<\/a>Singer and rhythm guitarist Tate Moore<\/strong> and bass player Dave Woolworth<\/strong>, affectionately known as \u201cKudzu Dave,\u201d who had a weekly gig at Ireland\u2019s, hooked up with electric guitarist Max Williams<\/strong>, formerly of The Mosquito Brothers<\/strong>, a New Orleans-style funk band. Williams drafted Mosquito Brothers drummer Chuck Sigler<\/strong> and keyboardist Robert Chaffe<\/strong>. \u201cWe merged both bands because Robert was playing with Dave, doing the acoustic thing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSo I was like, \u2018Hey, I know some other cats that know how to play music, why don\u2019t we just make a band out of it?\u2019\u201d They were soon joined by George McConnell<\/strong>, a co-founder of Beanland<\/strong>, Oxford\u2019s premiere band during the late 80s and early 90s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-DaveBryan\"<\/a>This lineup was the root of the Kudzu Kings (the origins of the name are a matter of dispute) in late 1994, and they soon spread up and down Harrison Avenue. \u201cYou know, what\u2019s interesting was that it was really like \u2018The Battle of Harrison Avenue\u2019 for where the Kudzu Kings would play that week,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt was between the Gin, Ireland\u2019s, and Proud Larry\u2019s. I think there was actually a week or two when we played all three places.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were still doing a house band sort of thing every week at Ireland\u2019s, which was pretty much a bar locals went to, our friends,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut little by little the college kids started to realize how much fun it was, and they started coming too. Soon we had all kinds of people having fun and that\u2019s when we started having to find places big enough for everybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-LamarSorrentoPainting\"<\/a>\u201cIt was Mondays at the Gin, Tuesdays at Ireland\u2019s,\u201d Chaffe said. \u201cEvery week, that was a given; Larry\u2019s would be somewhere in the Thursday, Friday, Saturday mix. \u201cWe had a lot of gigs in the early days, and we developed a good chemistry early on. Packing the Library (a large venue west of the Square) came a bit later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The group has described their music as \u201cfunktry,\u201d a unique version of syncopated country that nobody had really done before (\u201cExcept for maybe those groovy 70s era recordings from Willie Nelson,\u201d Chaffe said), with an infusion of muddy New Orleans funk that got people moving. The lineage of Kudzu Kings is easily traced to The Tangents<\/strong>, a subject of legend across the state and beyond. The Tangents brought their own spectacular blend of blues, jazz, and rock to Oxford many times in the early 80s and sowed the seeds that sired Beanland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-TedGeorge\"<\/a>\u201cWhen I was with Beanland, we were trying to be the Tangents,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cWith their soul, their camaraderie, their stage presence, they were a huge influence on me when I got here to Ole Miss in 1981, and when I caught them at the Gin, I was like, \u2018Who ARE these guys?\u2019 They were the Bad Boys from the Delta, man. They could play those old songs as well as anyone could, plus they did it with their own style. Beanland had some legendary shows with the Tangents at Syd & Harry\u2019s; we\u2019d swap sets, but they always closed the show and ended up mopping the floors with us. That carries on with the Kudzu Kings, so we\u2019re going to do a couple of Duff\u2019s songs, \u2018Peace Lily of the Valley\u2019(about a bend in the Sunflower River) being one of them, another being \u2018234\u2019 (a room number at the Holiday Inn in Greenville).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-PosterSophisticated\"<\/a>Kudzu Kings\u2019 biggest early break came in 1996, when they opened for Widespread Panic<\/strong> at Mud Island<\/strong> in Memphis. \u201cThat\u2019s when we fell into it,\u201d Tate said. \u201cI remember seeing Jeff Bransford backstage and he was like \u2018Hey man, how did you guys swing this?\u2019\u201d They have shared the stage many times with Widespread Panic (McConnell eventually joined up with Widespread Panic in 2002, but has since left). Kudzu Kings toured together for almost ten years (1994\u20132003), garnering a significant following in their native South as well as in Colorado and Texas playing at several big music venues and sharing stages with the likes of Bob Weir<\/strong>, Leftover Salmon<\/strong>, Ratdog<\/strong>, Jimmie Dale Gilmore<\/strong>, Junior Brown<\/strong>, and Aquarium Rescue Unit<\/strong>. The band has also collaborated with musicians such as Chris Etheridge<\/strong>, Bucky Baxter<\/strong>, John \u201cJojo\u201d Hermann<\/strong>, Cody Dickinson<\/strong>, and Tony Furtado<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-DaveTate\"<\/a>Kudzu Kings<\/em><\/strong> (1997), their debut CD, was produced by Grammy Award-winner Jim Gaines<\/strong>. In his review at Allmusic.com, Richard Foss<\/strong> said, \u201cPicture in your mind a really good country band that has been playing the biker bar scene for a while. They\u2019re tight and energetic and rowdy, and everybody works together really well. Now lock that band in a room with a whole bunch of Grateful Dead and Phish CDs and several dozen cases of beer, and tell them that they can only come out when the beer is gone and they have heard every album at least twice.\u201d Foss called their music a mix of honky-tonk, country-rock, and jamming. \u201cMany of the songs will be about getting drunk, getting laid, and being broke,\u201d along with ones about relationships (\u201cIt\u2019s a Play,\u201d \u201cStreetwalkin\u2019\u201d) and free verse set to music (\u201cAmsterdam\u201d), but Foss concedes that \u201cthe focus is on party music \u2026 The track that pushes this over the edge to greatness is \u2018I Love Beer.\u2019 \u201d Other crowd favorites are \u201cPanola County Line\u201d and \u201cMississippi Mud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"y2kow\"<\/a>By this time, Kudzu Kings were playing places such as The Varsity Theater<\/strong> in Baton Rouge, Tipitina\u2019s <\/strong>in New Orleans and Newby\u2019s<\/strong> in Memphis, as well as venues in Colorado such as The Fox <\/strong>and Boulder Theatres <\/strong> in Boulder and The Gothic Theater<\/strong> in Denver. Y2Kow<\/em><\/strong> (1999), the band\u2019s second release, was co-produced by the band and Jeffrey Reed<\/strong> of Black Dog Records<\/strong>. By then the first of many changes in the lineup had taken place, with Ted Gainey<\/strong> replacing original drummer Chuck Sigler, and Bryan Ledford<\/strong>, a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of bluegrass musician Ed Dye<\/strong>, replacing Max Williams. Ledford brought an element of both bluegrass and gospel to the Kudzu Kings\u2019 sound, and Y2Kow<\/em><\/strong> included new favorites like \u201cHangover Heart\u201d and \u201cBound for Zion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings-RedRocks2000\"<\/a>After their watershed 2000 performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheater<\/strong> in Morrison, Colorado\u2014again opening for Widespread Panic\u2014the Kudzu Kings found themselves at a crossroads. Resisting offers of a nation-wide tour, the band endured further lineup changes and decided to mostly book shows themselves. They toured heavily, but not for long. By 2003, the wear of nine years on the road was showing, the crowds were smaller, and a third album was cashiered. Since that time, the band\u2019s members have for the most part moved on to other projects, but they still play together, keeping the brotherhood alive. While Proud Larry\u2019s is going strong, the down Harrison Street scene is gone, but that sound lives on, and after twenty years, Kudzu Kings are bringing it back to Oxford with a show at the Lyric Theatre<\/strong> on Van Buren Nov. 28.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"FireBReathing\"<\/a>\u201cI want to warn everybody that Dave Woolworth has gathered up jugglers, fire breathers, dancing girls, and nubile young ladies to serve drinks. Not only that, we\u2019re having a give-away lottery for a tea cart we\u2019ve been threatening to give away for years,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing in about every drummer we\u2019ve ever played with, most all of the guitar players from over the years, lots of guests to sit in throughout the event, trying as best we can to begin with the songs we started with and move through the history of our music. We hope to show that there isn\u2019t a band without progression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"KudzuKings2014\"<\/a>\u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve ever been really able to capture the group in all of is different phases,\u201d Chaffe said. \u201cMost of our former members are coming back, so it really feels like family when you go back twenty years and think about all the people that have gone in and out, all the relationships we\u2019ve had. It\u2019s going to be neat to bring this all together on an emotional level on top of the purely musical statement. I didn\u2019t envision myself in Oxford twenty years later, but it just so happened that the relationships that were made as a direct result of being in this band have shaped my life in more ways than just the band itself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only been a good time,\u201d Woolworth said. \u201cIn all marriages you grow, and when you\u2019re a band, in a sense you\u2019re married to everybody else. We\u2019re really lucky because we\u2019re still able to do things together. That\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All photos courtesy of Kudzu Kings. \"The<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

This article was originally printed in The Local Voice #217 (published November 20, 2014).<\/span>
\n To download the PDF of this issue, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Here’s the link to the Facebook event for November 28th’s show at The Lyric<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

(Kudzu Kings band page on Facebook<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

(Kudzu Kings’ closed group on Facebook – just ask to join if you’re a fan<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

\"CircusTentTop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, November 28 at The Lyric Oxford:
\n<\/span><\/h2>\n

KUDZU KINGS 20th Anniversary Show
\n<\/span><\/h1>\n

3 – 3:30 pm<\/span>\u00a0 –\u00a0 Free acoustic set for the young and old <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 pm<\/span>\u00a0 –\u00a0 Udderly Early Party \/ Panel Discussion \/ Puppet Show<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

8 pm<\/span>\u00a0 –\u00a0 Doors <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

9 pm<\/span>\u00a0 –\u00a0 Showtime<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

\"KudzuQA-1-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"KudzuQA-1-c\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"KudzuQA-1-b\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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