Hanging With the “Wrong Crowd”: Across the Wide at Good Ol’ Days, August 27, 2022

It isn’t often that I venture into the country zone, music or otherwise. But, it was friend and music-companion Dave’s birthday, and he promised me that I would love Across the Wide, so I went.

What I didn’t know at the time was that this band has Youtube views in the thousands and a history of opening for people like Asleep at the Wheel and Charlie Daniels (see www.acrossthewide.com). And this particular evening Wendell Cox (Travis Tritt’s guitarist) joined them, doing tricks like playing slide with a beer bottle and helping to amp things up past the ten on the volume knob. This was not your typical bar band.

The band bills themselves as “situated at the crossroads of Traditional country, Americana, and Honkytonk,” and the setlist was pretty much what you would imagine – high energy “outlaw” country/Southern rock covers, like Whisky River, Mama Tried, and Curtis Lowe. However, it also included songs by Blue Oyster Cult, Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, ZZ Top,  Stones, and Jimi Hendrix. I tried to find a commonality between the genre and decade hopping, which turned out to be testosterone-laden guitar tempered by melodious vocal harmonies.

And testosterone-laden it was. The band stayed steady throughout the evening with pounding rhythms and rubberbanding tension/release moments almost to the breaking point in every song: Notes at the top of the scale were held longer, time changes were exaggerated, fills were tight, solos were intensive musical restatements of lyrics, and drums raised the song heartbeat exponentially.  The result was a crowd that stayed in frenzy mode.

Good Ol’ Days is fabulous for people watching, and the diverse clientele seemed well-situated and feeling good. Weathered couples stomp-danced, men with things like liberty bells on their t-shirts spun around on their own, a big dude bopped like a biker-butterfly, a country gentleman two-stepped with his women, an aging beauty tap-danced alone, and a girl with a shaved head swung her tat-laden partner. There were lots of young ladies in Daisy Dukes and cowgirl boots, loud women, and men trying to get their attention. “I’ll hold your beer in my titties!” said one enthusiastic large-bosomed woman to another as she made her way to the dancefloor, and this comment somehow did not seem at all unusual.

Not surprisingly, the Stones’ Honky Tonk Woman was a pleaser. Everyone yelled and cheered when they heard the opening notes and sang in what could easily have been their theme song.

The audience was louder, drunker, and lewder than I generally hang around, I thought to myself.

But they were different in other ways as well. For example, when Across the Wide announced that they were going to do an original, people did not get out their phones and disengage, like I’ve seen at most other shows. Instead, they cheered even louder. I could see why, as these originals were actually really good and reminded me of the country music that I do like – the old school people like Merle Haggard and the middle school ones like George Straight. However, I don’t think it would have mattered if the originals were bad. This crowd loved their troubadours.

And the band gave back every bit of it. They played their hearts out for over three hours, despite no cover and far less in the tip bucket than what should have been. This band knew their fans and loved them all the better for their idiosyncrasies, and that, to me, was the “value added” to their musical, vocal, and song writing talent and what will, I believe, continue to propel them to even higher levels.

All this was captured in the last song of the evening, entitled The Wrong Crowd . And, as if to create a living image of what I was thinking, much of the audience came close to the stage, linked arms, held up their drinks, and sang along, and, yes, I joined them.

This song goes out to the pickers and bartenders

To the bikers and drifters

To the outlaws and stubborn cowboys like me

To everyone who’s looked down on

‘Cause they hold on to their dreams and their freedom

And they don’t give a damn if the world disagrees

Lord knows there are people who don’t understand us

They judge and they damn us

Cause we walk a few steps out of bounds

They call us sinners and no-good un-repenters

But it says in red letters

That Jesus thought better

Of folks in the wrong crowd

Well they call us the wrong crowd

the rough cut and too loud

but friends I am sure proud

to call you my family

The evening was a surprise in many ways and a good reminder of how rewarding it can be to get out of your comfort zone - musically and otherwise. And so, it seems fitting to end my review of the “wrong crowd” and the band who loves them, with a toast to your good company.

Jody Abernathy –lead vocals, guitar; Mark Mundy – guitar, vocals; Joe Worrell – bass, vocals; Mark Strickland – drums; Wendall Cox - guitar, vocals (guest)