THE
COOTS
by Joe Harvard
|
 Bill "King" Kane, also of G-Love and Special Sauce, on bass; Evan Harriman on keys. 
 Green Street Grille rocked and swung as the Coots got down with a vengeance. On drums the coots
are blessed with what the French Romantics called "an embarrassment of
riches". They can be seen playing with either one of two excellent drummers
occupying the throne, depending on everyone's schedules and other variables,
such as Acts of God. Jerome Deupree is one of the players in this
game of "musical chairs (stools?)". A seasoned veteran of the Sex Execs,
Decoders, Humanz, Morphine, Mr. Happy and the Either Orchestra,
Jerome now calls the Joe Morris Band his home. So when Joe is playing
out, Jerry's awesome chops are made unavailable to his fellow coots. Not
to worry, though, because the drummer who shares the stickhandling chores
is Phil Neighbors , another heavy duty rhythm ace. On the night
that I saw the Coots Phil was as solid as a rock, swung like a well-greased
gate in a stiff wind, and was as tasteful as a Chanel suit on Jackie O.
In a beat-crazy group like theirs that's an all-important requirement,
and these guys may be Coots but old and tired they are definitely
not. 
  Don't you love a drummer who gets into his (or her) job? Here Phil Neighbors puts the kit through its paces.
Last but certainly not least is Evan Harriman on keyboards. In a band that regularly plays out without a guitar player (what sacrilege!) the keys have to handle all the rhythmic and melodic chores generally ascribed to the geetbox. Performing anything akin to Western Swing without guitar is a rough road to hoe, but Evan rises to the challenge. Merging styles like spices in a recipe all his own, he adds a touch of barrelhouse here, a bit of Professor Longhair there, and a tad pinch of Little Feat-ures for flavor. All in all a tasty blend. And it's all made to seem effortless, hell the guy never even breaks into a sweat. This is a band rife with professionalism.
the Band:
-
 Go to the Treat Her Right article... Fort Apache ... Treat Her Right... the Sex Execs... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Coots are a new band, founded and fronted by Jim Fitting,
an accomplished former squid chef and career musician. Jim is better known
for his membership in a number of pivotal Beanscene groups, including
the Sex Execs and Treat Her Right. He was punched to tour
with The The, and made several, highly acclaimed cameo appearances
onstage with Bonnie Raitt- most recently in August of '98 at Harborlights.
Unlie most blues harp players, Jim- who played baritone sax with the Sex
Execs -takes a total approach to his chosen instrument, adding the diabolically
difficult chromatic harmonica to his arsenal of traditional, one-key-only
blues harps. For those unfamiliar with the blues harp, it's a harmonica
that only plays in a single key- maybe that's where the harp tag comes
from in the first place, as the angels-play-'em orchestral harp is also
tuned to one key -so there are no wrong notes to hit. The chromatic is
a whole other creature, like a sax or other wind instrument, with all
the notes you'd ever need, except you have to manipulate these sliding
bars to get at them. It bears the same relationship to the blues harp
that a pedal steel guitar has to the common six-string variety: it is
approached with trepidation and avoided by all but the best players. Yet
Jim and his harp of many colors (get it, chromatic, colored...oh, never
mind) is just one of the weapons in the Coots impressive arsenal.
The
other half of the solid rhythm section is Bill "King" Kane on the
Les Paul Recording Bass. Perhaps to be a Coot is to share an affinity
for uncommon instruments, of which the Recording Bass is certainly one.
Designed for the recording studio- hence, as I'm sure you've already figured
out, its' name -the LPR Bass is an oddball unit with low impedance output
just like a microphone, and it takes a combination of musician and electronic
technician to get the things to sound right. Sound men groan when they
see when coming. The rewards are incremental to the task, though, and
when properly stepped up/down/and back-around the beast is a grumbling,
bellowing thumpfeisters dream. It just so happens that "King" Kane is
one of the very few humans on the planet that does it right. Picture Felix
Pappalardi from Mountain, or Cream's Jack Bruce,
hopped up on Jaegermeister and playing country swing, and you get close
to an accurate picture of what goes on here. When he is not rocking up
the Coots repertoire Bill can be seen playing with popular G Love and
Special Sauce.
The
shots on this page were taken at the Coots gig at Green Street Grille
in August of 1998. On this particular occassion Jim was planning on being
late, as he was playing with Bonnie Raitt that night. Former Treat
Her Right cohort Dave "Champagne" Alcott was brought in to handle
frontman duties for the first set. By luck, however, Jim got out early
enough to make the set, so the crowd was treated to a double-barreled
version of the already potent Coots lineup. A number of tunes were included
in the set for Dave's benefit, including material by the Meters
and a couple of Treat Her Right songs, like the subtly humorous paean
to a mysterious girl named "Doreen". It was a bit different from the standard
Coots repertoire, and veered a short distance away from their normal guitar-less
sound, but the crowd had no complaints. I was happy to be part of the
evening's festivity as half of an unrehearsed, eleventh-hour duet with
Kennie Highland (he sang and played slide and accoustic guitar,
I handled leads on my Telecaster). Celebrating his sixth anniversay, Kennie
was preparing to take off for Memphis, and he got in the mood with a set
of Delta blues covers- heavy on the Memphis -including tunes by Jimmy
Reed, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Johnny Rivers and Muddy Waters.
I watched his hands and tried to hang in there. The crowd was receptive,
and by the end of our set they were warmed up and ready to be Cootified.
