THE NOW TIME DELEGATION - Watch For Today
I always thought that Lisa Kekaula of the Bell Rays suffered a bit from what I call Mark Arm Syndrome. That is, a grade-a vocalist spending too much time and energy at the service of so-so material. This supergroup (Tim Kerr (Big Boys, Lord High Fixers, the (disappointing, Arm-fronted) Monkeywrench... ) and Alex Cuervo (Blacktop) are the other "big" names) one-off (I think - the album came out six years ago, and there's not even a hint at a follow-up) replaces the Bell-Ray's abrasive hard rock with tuff 60s southern r'n'b, and it sounds great. Nothing that hasn't been done a thousand times before - I'm not sure there's even one original tune on the record - but it's done exactly right.
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More blather from In the Red:
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Lisa Kekaula - vocals
Tim Kerr - guitar/harmonica
Alex Cuervo - bass
Kari Luna - hammond organ
Steve Adkins - drums
Hey now, hey now, hey now! And right now – I mean like right now – let’s jump, let’s jive, let’s harmonize! Let’s move, let’s groove, let’s shout the blues! Let’s get reelin’ with the feelin’ to the band that’s so appealin’! So clap your hands and stomp your feet and do a little dance, all right, all reet, to the double-backbeat of the mean city street! The uptown sound that’s goin’ down!
The w-i-L-d-est band this side of Birdland … The NOW TIME DELEGATION!!!
Sometimes they sound like a three-way sonik bar-fight between the “2120 South Michigan Avenue”-era Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds at their most blueswailing, and either Ann Peebles’s snake-hipped take on “Part Time Love” or Koko Taylor’s doin’ her “Wang Dang Doodle.”
Take “Little Miss Fortune” (and don’t call me in the morning). Sometimes they sound like a
tied-to-the-whippin’ post, murder ballad as done by Julie Driscoll fronting Brian Auger & The Trinity or – if that’s not too-hip for the room -- Nina Simone as played by the Animals or the Alan Price Set. Dig “Hangin’ Tree” now (and plant you later allegators). And sometimes they sound like they’re flashin’ back to the rock ‘n’ soul daze of the MC5 playin’ the Grande Ballroom. Witness “Stand And Deliver” (and let me see a sea of hands out there).
Then there’s that mannish-girl’s thrump-up on the classic-rock S*T*A*R swagger of Free. Say “Bye Bye,” baby (and doo-ron, doo-ron if you met her on a Sunday). And how ‘bout that guitar player’s torn ‘n’ frayed solo on that little somethin’ that goes somethin’ like somethin’ from “Etta James Sings the Malaco-Muscle Shoals-Memphis Southern-soul Songbook”? Try “Laying On The Ground” (and tell me I’m lyin’). And that ain’t the half of it. Take one part tumescent organ instro covers of all-but-forgotten young mods the Quik doin’ their best imitation of the Small Faces doin’ their best Booker T. & The MG’s imitation (“Bert’s Apple Crumble”) AND unsung, but oft-heard cult-heroes the T.S.U. Toronados, who came straight outta Texas State University with the O.G. version of the groovealacious sounds found here (“Getting The Corners”), having previously worn the shine off the dancefloor as the backing band on Archie Bell & The Drells’ inspirational “Tighten Up.”
Add two parts soul, both familiar (Eddie Floyd’s “Raise Your Hand,” as interpreted by the bar-band that appears in the klassick ’67 drive-in flick “Hot Rods To Hell” -- or maybe Slim Harpo & The King Bees live! at the Sage Avenue Armory in 1961 -- a two-fisted workout on the Flirtations’ “can’t forget the Motor City” knock-off, “Nothin’ But A Heartache,” and a super-sparse rearrangment of Curtis Mayfield’s anthemic gospel rewrite for the Impressions, “Keep On Pushin’”) and obscure (a beautifully understated, heartwrenching rendition of King Floyd’s ballad “Handle With Care,” a.k.a. the B-side of the too-funky “I Feel Like Dynamite” – a cult-jam in its own right.) More a legend than a band, the NOW TIME DELEGATION are (drum roll please …) ex-Gospel Swingers organist Kari Luna, bassist Alex Cuervo, and drummer Steve Adkins, whose respective credits stretch from the Grownups to Blacktop to rockabilly pioneer Ronnie Dawson; guitarslinger Tim Kerr, whose vital stats include stints with the Big Boys, Poison 13, Jack O’ Fire, Lord High Fixers and The Monkeywrench; and Lisa Kekaula of the BellRays (vocals extraordinaire). “Look To Tomorrow” is their statement of purpose.
Watch For Today makes good on that statement.
They are the NOW TIME DELEGATION. And the party starts here …
Don Waller
