RAMBLIN ROUND: McAlester audience impresses Dancing Rabbit Music Fest performers

May 15—Those gathered along Choctaw Avenue for the Dancing Rabbit Music Festival last Saturday obviously liked the trio of performers booked for the event.

Not only did they give hearty rounds of applause at the end of each song, many of those down in front of the outdoor stage at the corner of Choctaw Avenue and Third Street looked as if they were closely following every lyric.

That's not surprising, considering the artists for the opening May 7 session of the 2022 Dancing Rabbit Music Festival are known for their lyrical acumen as well as their musical abilities.

John Moreland, Joe Pug and Travis Linville proved a winning hand for the latest edition of the Dancing Rabbit Music Fest. Linville brought along his band, while Pug and Moreland performed solo — Moreland with an electric guitar and Pug with an acoustic guitar and harmonica.

While many of the festival attendees were obviously into the artists' onstage performances, the artists were appreciative of the McAlester audience. I know — because they said so.

Linville, who opened the set, played a big, hollow body Gretsch electric guitar — the brand preferred by guitarists ranging from Chet Atkins to George Harrison. Linville fired dazzling arrays of guitar licks throughout his performance, consisting of mostly original songs, such as "I'm Still Here," the title track of his most recent album, written with Natalie Hemby of the country music supergroup, The Highwomen.

He also delivered a rendition of his song "Wishes," singing "Twistin' and turnin' down the roads that you chose; walkin' and runnin' straight into the blues. Don't look back now, you've gone to far. Keep your dreams in your heart; keep your wishes in the stars."

And one point Linville spoke to the Dancing Rabbit Music Festival audience members about the songs he played.

"We appreciate you listening to these songs that you may or may have heard of," he said.

Linville's set included a few covers, including Willie Nelson's "Yesterday's Wine" and the Willie Dixon song "Seventh Son" — also recorded by other artists ranging from Mose Allison and Johnny Rivers.

He deftly delivered the song's braggadocious lyrics in the best blues tradition: "I can tell your future, it will come to pass. I can do things to you make your heart feel glad. Look in the sky, predict the rain, tell when a woman's got another man. I'm the one, the one they call the seventh son," Linville sang.

Linville closed his set with a couple of instrumental songs I knew I'd heard before, but I couldn't place exactly where — although I had a feeling about one of them.

He used his guitar-play skills to effective use, drawing up images of gypsy camps and campfires without singing a word.I felt totally at a loss as to identifying the first song and didn't feel quite sure regarding my hunch about the second, since Linville's amped-up electric rendition sounded so much different that other arrangements I'd heard.

Oh well, maybe I'd remember later where I'd heard the songs before.

Since the music started a little earlier this year, skies overhead were still blue as Linville ended his performance and Joe Pug took to the stage, with his acoustic guitar and harmonica rack around his neck.

As Pug sang his poetic songs, I stood for awhile below the stage to the left. The view captured the McAlester vibe of the event, since I saw the Aldridge Hotel in the sky blue background behind his right shoulder, and the Masonic Temple in the distance to Pug's left.

Pug said he'd played lots of times in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. "This is my first time in McAlester," Pug said,

Pug opened with some of his best songs, including "Hymn No. 35," "The Letdown" and "The Flood In Color."

Pug said while driving to McAlester from Oklahoma City, he didn't expect to find a place called "Little Italy" in the McAlester and Krebs areas. He also spoke of sampling some large Italian olives from Lover's.

"I'm saying I fee a kinship with you guys," he said.

He also delivered a tribute to two other artists and their songs.

"We've lost a lot of American musicians over the last couple of years," Pug said. "One I did know very well; one I didn't know, but I felt like I knew him. God rest his soul, this song is a John Prine song."

Pug then sang a version of Prine's "Sam Stone."

"This is something I can do; I can sing their songs," Pug said, then performing Justin Towne Earle's song"My Mama's Eyes."

Pug, who lives in Maryland, said it had been a couple of years since he'd been in Oklahoma. "Everything's the same," he said, except for the widespread medical marijuana shops.

"There are marijuana shops everywhere," he said. "I can't believe it."

Following Pug, Moreland took the stage, playing an electric guitar as his only accompaniment. That's all Moreland needed, using his fingerpicking style to great effect, occasionally delivering a cascade of notes shimmering into the now darkened skies, with a crescent moon overhead.

It proved a fitting setting as Moreland delivered a stunning rendition of one his best songs, "Hanging in the Tulsa County Stars."

"So darling let the charmers leave the room; they're drowning out the Nashville moon. I want to learn exactly who you are, then hang me in the Tulsa County stars," he sang.

As I looked around at the audience members near the front of the stage, they seemed intent on every word.

As Moreland finished his generous performance, he started to leave the stage. Suddenly, many who were sitting in lawn chairs or along the sidewalks rose and gave Moreland a spontaneous standing ovation. One man even took off his cowboy hat and held it by his side, as a sign of his respect.

Moreland turned and walked back up the stairs to the stage and told the audience he'd perform one more song.

"Thank you so much," Moreland said during his time onstage. "I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've played in McAlester, so thank you so much for having me here."

Following Pug's performance, I spoke to him briefly behind the stage, asking him for his impressions of performing at the Dancing Rabbit Music Festival.

"I loved it," Pug said. Speaking of performing at festivals, Pug said "It's always tough to see if they'll listen to the music." Pug had been impressed by how the McAlester audience listened closely to the performances.

As I listened to Moreland's performance, Linville and some friends stood on the sidewalk nearby, listening as well. No way would I interrupt someone's listening experience when John Moreland is performing, but later, when they were getting ready to leave, I asked Linville what were the titles of those last two instrumentals he'd played.

"'Caravan,' by Duke Ellington," Linville said of the first song. "And 'Nuages,' by Django Reinhardt."

"Ha! I knew it," I replied. "I'd heard Reinhardt's classic song a number of times, and have heard it even more by Willie Nelson, who likes it so much he's recorded it several times.

"Wow. I never thought I'd hear a Django Reinhardt song on the streets of McAlester," I told Linville.

One more thing to check. That guitar Moreland played looked an lot like a Fender Telecaster, but appearances can indeed be deceiving when it comes to guitars. I saw Moreland backstage and asked him about the instrument he'd played.

"It's a Nash guitar," Moreland said, saying the guitar was built by an independent guitar maker.

As I congratulated Moreland on the standing ovation and encore, he spoke of how attentive the McAlester audience was to the performance.

The Dancing Rabbit Music Festival is put together by a group of individuals with the goal of making McAlester known as a regional music hub, while bring free live performances to the city. Dancing Rabbit Music Festival Board members do it with lots of help from sponsors and volunteers.

A few weeks before the first festival show of the year, Dancing Rabbit Music Festival Association President Blake Lynch spoke about how important audiences and attendance are to the festival's success.

I would say the McAlester audience members, which included festival-goers from around Oklahoma and from out of state as well, did their part during the opening show of the 2022 Dancing Rabbit Music Festival series.

Now, bring on the June and July shows.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.