Most Popular
-
Dallas's Most Authentic Dive Bars Pull up a stool, order some cheap whiskey and don’t forget to duck when the beer bottles fly
- A court case forced a Santeria priest to reveal some of his religion’s secrets. Its ritual of animal sacrifice, he revealed on his own.
- No Justice: We've Bailed Out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind Our Financial Collapse?
- Help! Those Mexicans Are Laughing at Me.
- Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison Are Locked In A Pitched Battle Over The Soul Of The GOP. They Are Also Running For Governor.
Reader's Picks
Top Recommendations
A short list of Dallas's most popular hot spots.
-
Monica's Aca y Alla
Dallas, TX -
Tei Tei Robata Bar
Dallas, TX -
City Tavern
Dallas, TX -
Sambuca Uptown
Dallas, TX -
BlackFriar Pub
Dallas, TX -
Joe T. Garcia's
Fort Worth, TX
Recent Blog Posts
City Releases Report Concerning Allegations of Sexual Harassment in Dallas Fire-Rescue
Fri Nov 20, 5:50 PM
Sure, DPD Chief David Kunkle's Retiring. But He's Still Got Some Officers to Fire.
Fri Nov 20, 4:59 PM
Good Friday: Jackopierce, Dweezil Zappa, Darktown Strutters, Captured by Robots, Boys Named Sue, Hatebreed, Justin Nozuka, Cartel, Generationals, Norma Jean, Paula Cole
Fri Nov 20, 5:18 PM
Bonus MP3: Ishi -- "Pastel Lights"
Fri Nov 20, 4:33 PM
Jerry Jones: Not a Banner Day for Cowboys Stadium. Ever. What?!
Fri Nov 20, 11:00 AM
Whitt's End: 11.20.09
Fri Nov 20, 9:00 AM
Question Of The Week: Doesn't Thanksgiving Deserve Better Television Specials?
Fri Nov 20, 3:54 PM
And The Winner Is...
Fri Nov 20, 3:04 PM
National Features >
City Pages
Michele Bachmann, Unmuzzled
You don't need to read Sarah Palin's book to hear the ravings of a mad woman.
By Matt Snyders
Miami New Times
Pimp Daddy
The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.
By Natalie O'Neill
Riverfront Times
Babe 'n' Arms
Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.
By Nicholas Phillips
Ha Ha Tonka, Ludo, Meese, Without a Face
Friday, November 13, at the Prophet Bar
Share
By Roy Kasten
Published on November 11, 2009 at 10:09am
Ha Ha Tonka caught the new wave of ersatz old-time stompers and pickers churned up by the Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show, but the Springfield, Missouri, band rides the twang with an idiosyncratic style and the electric confidence of self-made Ozark shit-kickers.
The title of the band's 2009 album, Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South, only sounds pretentious in title. Inspired by the prose of Harold Bell Wright, the song cycle captures the haunted past and present of the Southern Midwest the band knows so well: The political corruption, the seething racism and the hellfire ideology are as real as the crackling seams of their harmonies and the bursting zeal of their guitars.
Ha Ha Tonka is literate all right, but its songs are etched in the spontaneous script of rock 'n' roll.
