The Examiner Reviews Kevn Kinney Band at Park Tavern
Kevn Kinney, Some Dark Holler and Ken Will Morton at the Park Tavern
by Chris Martin for The Examiner
August 29, 2011
If you did not partake in the rock show at the Park Tavern last night, then shame on you. If you did, then you know what I am talking about. Sunday night the Kevn Kinney Band, Some Dark Holler and Ken Will Morton treated the crowd to a night of mighty fine rock, country and folk tunes.
Anchoring the night was the Kevn Kinney Band, out promoting Kevn’s new record A Good Country Mile. I have seen several incarnations of
the Kevn Kinney Band, and this foursome may be the best by far. Kevn’s raw vocals & guitar, Tim Nielsen’s thumping bass, Anton Fier’s powerful drumming and icing on the cake, Audley Freed’s nasty guitar. You add these four dudes together and it equals what we had last night, a night of loud in your face rock music. Jamming through tunes from the new album, “Challenge”, “Set In Stone”, “A Good Country Mile” and “Wild Dog Moon, Pt.2”, classics, “Honeysuckle Blue” and “Straight To Hell” and great versions of the Replacements “Here Comes The Regulars” and“Highway 316 Revisited” (a take on Bob Dylan), their sound exploded in your ears resulting in the sweet pain of good music crawling deep into your head. Hi
ghlighting the set had to be the all out jam fest of “Blues On Top of Blues”. Auldey and Kevn played off of each other’s guitar playing, leading to some pretty sweet solos and jamming. It would have been nice to see what else would have been pulled out of their bag of tricks if “The Man” hadn’t shut things down. Damn noise ordinances.
Before the KKB rocked the house, Chris Porter’s Some Dark Holler hit the stage belting out a powerful set of tunes chock full of great lyrics and foot stomping music. Porter’s gravely howl was beautifully backed by his savage attack on an acoustic guitar, Helen Gassenheimer’s angelic voice & sweet fiddle playing and some thumping stand up bass from Eric Onimus. “Cottonmouth”, “Kerosene and Pills” and a sweet rendition of “I’m On Fire” (Springsteen) anchored their set, and were mere appetizers to tide you over until their debut album comes out. Also, the fishbowl fortunes were a nice touch.
Kicking off the night was Athens’ Ken Will Morton. Having listened to Ken’s music over the past few years I never have had the chance to see him live, and I have been missing out. His trio rolled through a collection of tunes from his multiple albums. A great start for the evening of music.
The Park Tavern set up was pretty sweet. Under a big tent, a nice breezy evening, good crowd, beers flowing, not much better ways to partake in some sweet music. If you dig good music, then check out all three of these artists and support their music, you will not be disappointed. Oh yeah, shame on all of you for not going, you missed one hell of a night of music.