THE ROOTS CELLAR

By Barry Gilbert

Michael “Supe” Granda, St. Louis native and bassist for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, has added a new series of gigs to his parallel solo career: “Supe’s On: An Evening of Songs, Stories & Serious Silliness.” The show, which debuts this weekend in St. Louis, features Supe singing songs from his Daredevils and solo catalogues, and telling stories drawn from his book on the band.

We had a very enjoyable chat last week, and my story from that interview appears in this week’s Go! magazine in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Also, here are some links to some earlier Supe/Daredevils stories

–A review of Supe Granda’s bandography, “It Shined: The Saga of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils”

– A review of the Daredevils’ CD “Rhythm and Joy: The 1980 Reunion Concert”

– A story from 2004, “Old stunts are new again”

– A story from 2009, “Band keeps on strummin’ ”

For fans of the Daredevils, Supe and the Sandwiches, Supe de Jour and the Garbonzos, here’s the interview Q&A, edited a bit for length and clarity.

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BG: I see by your area code that you’re still down in Nashville.

Supe: I’ve been in Nashville 19 years. Almost as long as I lived in Springfield. I love it down here. I got access to the greatest musicians in the world. For a musician and writer, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.

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The Waco Brothers perform at Twangfest

The following post is an unedited version of my report for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which ran in a shorter form on Monday, June 9, 2008.

June 15, 2008

By Barry Gilbert

The Waco Brothers, an irreverent band of post-punk, country-leaning Brits from Chicago, and Ha Ha Tonka, young tradition-minded rockers from the Ozarks, closed out the four-night Twangfest 12 in style Saturday [June 7, 2008] at Off Broadway.

St. Louis’ not-for-profit, roots music festival came full circle with the Wacos, who inaugurated the series at Off Broadway in 1997.

– Review of Day 1: Chuck Prophet, Centro-Matic, the Butchers and the Builders
– Review of Day 2: The Gourds, the Dynamites featuring Charles Walker, the Deadstring Brothers
– Review of Day 3: The Old 97’s, Hayes Carll, Miles of Wire, I Love Math
– Review of Day 4: The Waco Brothers, Ha Ha Tonka, the everybodyfields, Caleb Travers

Clad in a variety of black Western shirts, the Wacos played for an hour and 45 minutes and tore through 20 songs, a set list that would have been longer if not for the Wacos’ nonstop onstage banter that ranged from British sexual practices to U.S. politics, with numerous checkpoints in between.

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