Ray Price shows why he's a true-blue country legend at Knuckleheads on Friday. Photos by Bill Brownlee/Special to The Star
Dancers held each other tightly as Ray Price crooned "Crazy."
Everyone had to notice the trains rumbling by a few yards away -- "Right in tune," the country legend joked -- but only a few saw a waitress scoop up small toads hopping near the stage.
The four fiddlers in the 10-piece band sounded impossibly sweet. Adding to the illusory sensation, fewer than 200 people were on Knuckleheads' outdoor deck Friday night to witness the magnificent performance. It was like a wonderful dream.
Yet there was Price in the flesh, looking dignified and justifiably delighted with the lush sound of his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Musically and historically, Price's gig falls somewhere between Frank Sinatra's final tour and, say, a George Strait show in a small tavern in 2033.
"For those who are asking how old I am," Price proudly offered, "I'm 81-years-old."
His set list emphasized a "lion in the winter" sensibility. Price looked death squarely in the eye during deeply moving renditions of "Time" and "I Won't Mention It Again." His velvety voice is even more evocative than it was 50 years ago.
Price managed to squeeze only a fraction of his many hits into his hour-long set. "Crazy Arms," "Release Me," "Night Life" and "For the Good Times" were greeted with ecstatic sighs. Price favored the cosmopolitan side of his lengthy career, although he dipped into honky tonk for "Heartaches By the Number" and touched on Western swing with "San Antonio Rose."
Fittingly, Price's final song was "A Mansion On the Hill, by "my dear old friend Hank Williams." When Williams died in 1953, Price inherited the remnants of his band. Hank may not have done it this way, but like the fortunate few at Knuckleheads, he'd surely have marveled at Price's longevity.
Prior to the dreamlike state induced by Price, Tater and the Gravy Train offered 35 minutes of hardcore cheating and drinking songs. Among their vintage selections was Billy Joe Shaver's "Honky Tonk Heroes," an appropriate theme song for this local band.
| Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star
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