If you go
* What: Nightfall concert series featuring The Dusty 45s * When: 8 p.m. Friday, May 8, Joey Winslett Band opens at 7 p.m. * Where: Miller Plaza, 850 Market St. * Admission: Free * Phone: 423-265-0771 * Artist website: www.dusty45s.com * Venue website: www.nightfallchattanooga.com
Discography
2004: “Devil Takes His Turn” 2007: “Billy Joe & The Dusty 45s Live” 2010: “Fortunate Man” 2011: “Shackin’ Up” 2014: “The Dusty 45s: Live and On Fire”
The opener
Joey Winslett Band is a local rock/blues band featuring Soddy-Daisy resident Joey Winslett (lead vocals) with Richard King (bass), Michael Bonner (lead guitar), Eric Dempsey (keys) and Justin McNeece (drums). For more information, visit www.reverbnation.com/joeywinslettband.
Every once and a while, when a show reaches fever pitch, Billy Joe Huels will turn his back on the audience. A few seconds later, his trumpet is on fire. Real fire – the hot kind.
When Jimi Hendrix did this to his guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, he proceeded to beat it to smithereens. When Huels does it, he keeps playing.
That’s how much he cares about wowing an audience.
“I think if you go back to the roots of rock ‘n’ roll and even of performance in general in the 20th century with vaudeville and early big-band music, you’re on a stage, and you’re there to give yourself to the audience and not introvert so much,” Huels says.
For almost 20 years, Huels has been the frontman of Americana band The Dusty 45s.
Originally from southern Illinois, he moved to Seattle after college and never left. Despite adopting a city that was the birthplace of grunge and artists who perfected the art of shoegazing, Huels says The Dusty 45s operate under a philosophy of anti-apathy.
“I don’t think the passion [of those other bands] is any different,” he says. “But the actual performance itself, our hearts are open and our eyes are open to the audience. We’re not trying to shut them down or put a wall between us and them.”
Three times named Seattle’s best band by readers of Seattle Weekly, The Dusty 45s regularly tour around the U.S. spreading the gospel of engaged performance through music that’s equal parts blues, surf, country, swing and rockabilly. Friday, May 8, they’ll make their Chattanooga debut as headliners of this week’s Nightfall concert at Miller Plaza.
Huels practically oozes charisma. When he’s not setting his trumpet on fire and playing “Misirlou” while standing atop Robin Cady’s upright bass, he’s chatting up the band, on stage and off. Remembering times when he was younger and would approach bands after a show only to be rebuffed, he says he’s tries to make himself and his bandmates available to fans.
“We’re very fortunate to get the love,” he says. “It’s so important that we have this good relationship and that we can communicate our love of this kind of music and our songs to the audience.
“It’s not schtick; it’s real. We’re really trying to be ourselves and honest. That’s just how we play it.”
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.