european redneck music!

I wish I could lay claim to that description, but I cannot.
Ricardo Ochoa, the possessed violinist of Velvet Caravan, referred during the show tonight to that genre for their musical stylings.
Quite apt!
I well remember the evenings at the little restaurant on Bay and Lincoln that hosted the after-film screenings at the Lucas Theatre of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. That was in... 2010? 2009? Was it earlier than that? That film group hasn't had a screening here in at least four years, but the band has grown from Ricardo and guitarist Sasha Strunjas into a five-man jam session.
Tonight, Velvet Caravan had invited Packway Handle Band to come down from Athens to join them for a concert. And I was ushering! Hooray for free music for me!
I very much enjoyed that rockabilly group from Athens! Apparently, Kid Rock does too, as they have toured with him for the last two years. Most excellent! They opened with "Not A Song", which was a hoot! "This is not a song, it's a cry for help", they sing, "it's too late for me, go on and save yerself." Very funny and a sure sign that they were from a college town! Of course they had a song about bars, "Jim 3:16", claiming that "a bar is just a church that serves beer." Cute, right? But the one that really grabbed me was their cover of Queen's "Fat-Bottomed Girls" - wooooeeee! Revved up and soaring, Freddie Mercury would have loved it, too!
After intermission, Velvet Caravan took the stage...and the crowd went wild! No, really, they did. Tanked up on wine and beer during the opening band's concert, it was increasingly difficult to make them understand they were at the Lucas Theatre, not a bar. Oy vey!

They started out with Debussy's "Clair de Lune", played "outside the paper", as Ochoa says, in gypsy jazz fashion. Beautiful! But it was their sweetly phrased "Over The Rainbow", complete with ballet dancers, that truly made my night.
Truly.
That song from "The Wizard of Oz" has been special to me for most of my life, ever since I was a girl.
To hear that music coupled with the graceful young dancers...
and for that coupling to be the first time the band had done so...
how very special for all in attendance.
Thanks, y'all.