A FREE honky-tonk concert by Honest D & the Steel Reserve

Saturday , May 08, 2004
12:00 pm
Location: Elderly Instruments
in-store performance (free)

Got a hankerin' for honky-tonk? Like to learn what honky-tonk music sounded like in its heyday? Want to hear a fine band do an exceptional job of sharing the sounds of icons like Hank Williams and Merle Haggard? Just want some light-hearted entertainment from a band that's clearly having fun? Honest D & the Steel Reserve won't let you down.

"This band definitely knows what it's doing when it comes to authentic honky-tonk," wrote Anne Erickson in the Lansing State Journal, March 4, 2004

Yes, Honest D & the Steel Reserve clearly knows what it's doing. The music takes you back to the early decades of the last century, to Hank Williams and Merle Haggard, lyrics of the heartbreaky, hard-bitten, hard-smitten variety.

The four-piece band's efforts are explained by lead singer Derek Smith, aka "Honest D": "We try to keep it really traditional in terms of dress and instrumentation and the sound of it...poppy, short, danceable. 'What would Bob Wills do?' That comes up pretty often."

Lead guitarist Jeremy Rapp further explains the band's focus on authenticity: "We play a high energy set of deanceable swinging country. Lots of hot guitar as well as some fine ballads, we all wear suits and authentic-looking clothing," giving the appearance of "one of those old-school Grand Ole Opry show bands. It's...a whole revue."

Bassist Joe Bakaitis and drummer Dan Amori round out the band and add to the traditional sound with a clean and solid rhythm section. Joe shared another of Honest D & the Steel Reserve's goals: to "make music with friends. It's just fun for us to create music."

It's more than "just fun." These four young musicians have had considerable experience playing an eclectic array of musicial genres--and instruments!--in a number of successful mid-Michigan bands. In addition, Derek, Jeremy, and Joe all work fulltime on Elderly's sales floor.

The authenticity they bring to the music has become a common denominator. "We're talking straight up, in-your-face, tear-in-your-beer authentic honky-tonk," wrote Chris Wardell in the Lansing City Pulse,December 3, 2003.

Megan Frye described the band and music in the November 19, 2003 State News as "kind of a tip of the hat to the golden days of the Grand Ole Opry."

"Songs about heartbreak and infidelity...their music sounds like 1940s and '50s-era country...straightforward, emotionally rough, drawn from the same stuff as a thousand barroom ballads," wrote Matthew Miller in the March 4, 2004 Lansing Noise.

"Lansing's ruling honky-tonkers," wrote Elderly's Chris Rietz, describing the band. "Danceables and weepers," he called the traditional and original songs on their newly-released CD Horseradish Rag and Other Songs of Music.

"Catch their live show when you can--it is truly a rollicking good time." - Doug Neal, WDBM, Progressive Torch and Twang

You can also catch Honest D & the Steel Reserve's CD Release Party Saturday night, May 8th, at Mac's Bar, beginning at 9:30 p.m.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Honest D & the Steel Reserve