Deadwood Rocks

Published May 2, 2000, in The Monitor

Deadwood
In the Heartland

Review by Matthew Webber

Deadwood rocks.

Anybody who saw the legendary pianoman and Chuck Berry-collaborator Johnnie Johnson perform in Baldwin last year knows this. Deadwood backed Johnson as if they had been backing him all their lives, locking into a groove that drove the entire show. The band traded guitar, bass and drum solos with Johnson’s piano solos, dueting and then dueling with his fiery chops. Surprisingly, they didn’t lose; instead, they played like road-weary pros, or maybe like young rock kids trying to impress. Wow, did they impress!

Again: Deadwood rocks.

The Johnnie Johnson show confirmed this fact for me, though it was something I hypothesized after seeing them several times at various Truman festivities and the bars / coffee shops that constitute Kirksville hotspots. Deadwood are always a fun band to watch. They smile as they rip through their set of rock / blues standards. They’re an incredibly tight unit -- tighter than most every student band I’ve seen here -- grooving with painstaking precision.

What makes Deadwood even more fun to watch is that the band is made up of Truman professors and staff. (Perhaps you, too, have experienced the thrill of seeing one of your professors doing something entirely un-professor-like.) Deadwood contains Clifton Kreps on guitar and vocals, Michele Ralston on vocals, Ian Lindevald on bass, Aaron Ralston on guitar, the late Mike Hooley on drums and Carson Hooley on drums.

Deadwood’s new CD, In the Heartland, further attests to the band’s ability to rock. Recorded at Circle M, the CD contains six Deadwood originals written by Kreps and two covers -- staples of their live performances -- “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Sixteen Tons.” The band sounds as tight on disc as they do live. The songs sound just as fun on disc as in a bar. In fact, if you close your eyes, the music transports you there -- these blues are out-of-place in a room without smoke.

These boys and a girl could teach some student bands here a lesson in how to wrench passion from their instruments. Live and on Heartland, each skilled player’s instrument demands your attention. The drums pound throughout. The bass digs a groove. On “The Thrill Is Gone” -- which Deadwood torches -- the guitar sounds eerily Santana-like while Michele Ralston somehow *sings* more than sings. (Hey, she’s got a *fantastic* voice. How else can I describe it?)

The title, In the Heartland, is perfect for this music. It smells of the Midwest, of farmland, and of abandoned shoe factories. (Additionally, I’ve always thought Deadwood was a cool name for a blues band.) The music is perfect for those lonely Kirksville twilights.