by Frank Ricci
TRAY WELLINGTON BAND
SAT AUG 29 | 8 PM | BROUGHTON STREET BOWL & BREW
Comic Steve Martin has at least a couple of music connections outside his own material. The early Beastie Boys hip-hop single Cookie Puss includes a sample of a line from his stand-up routine, and EPMD’s debut album Strictly Business has an entire song about a dance called The Steve Martin. These nuggets aside, he’s also known for being a world-class banjo player. So good, he created the Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2010 to recognize exceptional players advancing the instrument, with the FreshGrass Foundation later taking over its administration.
Given where he has taken banjo, it’s no surprise Tray Wellington won the award in 2024. From a bluegrass foundation, Wellington pushes into jazz, bebop, contemporary folk, and hip-hop. From rural northwestern North Carolina, he began playing at 14, took to the Earl Scruggs three-finger style, and studied banjo at East Tennessee State. He gained industry recognition with his first band, Cane Mill Road, before going solo.
That’s when things got really interesting. Wellington’s debut, Black Banjo, made his jazz intentions clear. Covers of Duke Ellington and Kid Cudi on his breakthrough record, Detour to the Moon, expanded the landscape. If bluegrass has seen an upswing this year, and it surely has in Savannah, this is a show that displays just how much can be created from the essentials.
THE HVNZ
FRI AUG 28 | 9:30 PM | THE WORMHOLE
Electronic rock music that’s danceable, a separate category from EDM, is a high-risk/high-reward endeavor. Big, processed synths and beats matched with an alt-rock vibe hit its stride in the ‘90s with Curve, Republica, and Garbage. While the latter gained the most fame from singer Shirley Manson and grunge production guru Butch Vig, a strong argument can be made that the Republica debut album was the best of the bunch. Hit single Ready to Go became a soundtrack staple, but as is often the case, there are several better songs on the album. Either way, the genre’s vein is deep and rich for daring sonic explorers.
The HVNZ (spoken as “the heavens”) surely went down this rabbit hole. Relying less on distorted guitars and emphasizing the electronics, the band’s intriguing “synthgrunge” sound shares plenty of the first-wave DNA. The Florida Space Coast trio adds some darkwave and brooding goth, but it’s mainly a high-energy affair.
STEEP CANYON RANGERS
FRI AUG 28 | 8 PM | VICTORY NORTH
Like lightning, Steve Martin striking twice in this edition of Take Five is an unexpected surprise. The comedian-cum-banjo player has a long history with Steep Canyon Rangers, playing with them for years and recording a couple of albums. They were merely nominated for the 2011 release Rare Bird Alert. Without him, they won Best Bluegrass Album for Nobody Knows You the following year.
The year after that, with collaborator Edie Brickell on vocals, they won another Grammy for Best American Roots Song. Whether Jethro Tull’s Best Metal Album win in 1989 soured you on the very meaning of a Grammy or not, the bluegrass voters almost surely know better. After all, the Jethro Tull album wasn’t even a metal album. Like, at all.
Steep Canyon Rangers make grass as blue as it gets. Their consistent sound is what people hear in their heads when the word is said. Despite founder and frontman Woody Platt leaving the band in 2022, singer and guitarist Aaron Burdett has stepped in and stepped up without sending the band off course. Now firmly established in the lineup, he helps drive Next Act, the Rangers’ 15th studio album.
The record leans hard into the acoustic tradition that has always defined them, with banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar front and center. Yet there’s still room for the contemporary songwriting and rhythmic punch that they’ve perfected over more than 25 years. Simply put, bluegrass doesn’t get much better than this.
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SAT AUG 29 | 9 PM | BARRELHOUSE SOUTH
The boozy, horny vibe at Barrelhouse may be conducive to cover bands playing well-known songs that reveal shared interests among the celebrants. When the club does bring in acts that play originals, they do a fine job of finding good ones. High Point, North Carolina’s Pageant remains committed to the noble cause of pretending the ‘80s Sunset Strip never got flattened by the ‘90s grunge killdozer.
The glam-rock revivalists proudly wear animal prints and leather, use sexxxy stage names, and rock the sleazy guitar riffs required to make 1988 feel less like ancient history. More importantly, they have the songs and chops to keep the whole thing from becoming hair-metal cosplay.
Since their last Savannah visit, Pageant released Stockton, a more polished follow-up to 2023’s Walkin’ The Line. Daughtry guitarist Brian Craddock produced the record and Dream Theater keyboard wizard Derek Sherinian makes an appearance. The current lineup has slimmed to a trio of bassist and singer Roxxi Dirt, guitarist Dezzy Foxx, and drummer Dylan Dynasty, but the basic mission remains unchanged.
Originals dominate the set, drawing inspiration from Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, and Cinderella without sounding like a tribute act stuck beneath an industrial-size vat of Aqua Net. Show Me How to Love You adds a huge melodic hook, Leave You Behind has loads of arena-rock swagger, and the slower Road Away From Home proves they can take it down without falling prey to power ballad parody. Now if only they could get Vince Neil sent to prison for murdering Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle, all would be well in the Hair Metal Kingdom.
THE YACHT CLUB
SAT AUG 29 | 7 PM | COACH’S CORNER
There is absolutely nothing smooth about a closet sadist with a drill in your mouth grinding some of the hardest tissue in your body into a fine dust. Still, millions of people have endured the horrors of dentistry to the soothing sounds of what we now call yacht rock. A genre once mocked as so laid back and leisurely, civilians likely thought it was easy to create. The wrongness of this sentiment is like believing Chef Boyardee makes quality ravioli that rivals a homemade dish by an Italian grandmother in the basement kitchen.
The lords of yacht rock were phenomenally accomplished musicians. Steely Dan was known for torturing Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits with dozens of takes. A 19-year-old Christopher Cross filled in for Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore at a San Antonio show 10 years before he hit gold. Even Boz Scaggs worked with Duane Allman in Muscle Shoals and jammed with Jimi Hendrix.
There are more stories like this, but the point is a band like Yacht Club doesn’t glide through the enduring hits they play. It takes a lot of rehearsal and precision to pull it off so well. The Charleston act packs rooms with the ultimate combination of musicianship and songs that still resonate half a century later for a reason.