[from Nashville] She was a purty
little thing with a sassy little mouth. Her set was littered with hilarious
interludes, using her looks and her hillbilly twang to woo the audience. She
talked sly shit about everyone she knows, about herself, and about us (“I
appreciate you all coming out tonight when you had so many other options.”).
Some of the audience members thought she was over the top and putting on a bit
of an act, fluffing up the accent, but her background’s legit (rural Florida). I
mean her dad went to prison for running moonshine. She’s a girl who grew up
rough and made good. People couldn’t reconcile her prettiness with her supposed
background. With the heavy makeup, the bleached blonde hair, the cute little
outfit, and especially, pumping little spurts of throat soother in her mouth on
stage, I knew she was the sort of girl who needed to be in control after a childhood
that was a bit out of control. I just liked her – she’s done good for herself
and she sees through life and people. So they made references to outlaw country
through the night, but they were more of a country rock band. The music lacked definition,
and she is definitely more of a voice and performer than a guitarist. They were
at their best when the lyrics were witty and female [“I slid on my tightest
pair of jeans, Combed my hair like it was 1983, Honey I know that I am just
your wife, But I wanna be your girlfriend tonight”; “And we were making love in
the disco era, And he was Travolta and I was Farrah, I was like man what is
happening here, Dude must of put a qualude in my beer, If I wake up married,
I’ll have to annul it, Right now my hands are in his mullet”], when they did
covers (Johnny Horton, Merle Haggard), when they did old southern gospel, and
when the guitarist sang two songs of his own. Unlike Elizabeth, he was a dopey
humble hipster, in his misshapen shirt and slightly baggy dress pants, with a
curly lock of hair covering his eyes. He maintained a rocker’s cool until he
turned to look at Elizabeth and his adoration of her shone plain as day, and
when he sang, his face was a playground of emotions. His songs were simple but
his voice and active face infused them with emotion – decent guitarist too –
Tim Carroll is his name. We found out later he and Elizabeth just got married.
The third member of the band was an Australian roughneck on upright bass – he
was a sidenote, possibly because his guitar wasn’t amped properly. (Photo courtesy of
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