For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Slobberbone's, Ahem, Last Waltz in '05

The Kessler Theater has yet to offer it formal how-do's to W. Davis -- remember, tomorrow night it throws open its doors -- but already Jeff Liles has assembled an impressive concert calendar. And for this work week's adios we need look no further than next Saturday's Kessler lineup, featuring old friends Spyche and Pat McKanna and Brent Best, the once-and-future front man for the best band with the worst name. (Fifteen years later, I'm none too proud of that "Uncle Whopelo?" headline either.)

So, then, I offer you this whiskey glass flashback to Slobberbone's not-for-reals farewell on March 13, 2005, at Dan's Silverleaf -- which, how 'bout that, was the scene of Slobberbone's March 13, 2010, performance during NX35. (So glad that goodbye didn't take.) I've had this on the iPod for quite some time and have found it a most reliable companion for long drives or beer-thirty Sunday afternoons on the back porch -- punk-rock-a-country at its fiercest and finest, from opener "Front Porch" (off Barrel Chested) to the familiar Neil Young cover at closing time.

Bonus: Earlier this week, Pete pointed DC9 readers to David Byrne's blog, where he wrote about his collaboration-in-progress with a Lake Highlands High School grad named Annie Clark -- right, St. Vincent. Which reminded me: Back on October 19, 2007, Clark played the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, which, like the Slobberbone show, was expertly recorded and contained its share of notable covers (The Beatles' "Dig a Pony" and, better still, an essential rendering of Jackson Browne's "These Days," originally recorded by Nico). Lullabyes has thoughtfully preserved the entirety of that magical evening.