Roselit Bone - Doug Fir Lounge, Portland Oregon - February 23, 2018

[Portland OR] Enraptured and delighted. They were a pedal steel guitar, fiddle, Gretsch hollow-bodied guitar (this excited Music&Ducks – I forget why), electric guitar, drums, acoustic guitar, trombone, AND trumpet. The latter two mixed in some tambourine and maracas. Their sound was wide-ranging but coherent – some mix of ranchera, mariachi, spaghetti western, country rock, gothic country folk, rockabilly. Somes of their songs reminded me of the Desperado soundtrack, the Eagles, CCR. And I had just heard a great NPR story on this girl who was embarrassed at how her parents loved to cry over rancheras… until she grew up and developed a fondness for crying over them herself. The lead singer had stone cold charisma, in his bedazzled sparkly rhinestoned cowboy get-up and cowboy hat. His voice ranged from sad mellow to classic dusty tumbleweed to operative level angst. At first, I thought they were doing an over-the-top mockery but, in the end, it all read as sincere tribute. The band members were a pretty even mix of Latinos and gueros. I especially liked the horns-guy who reminded me of Guillermo Diaz, the short-drink-of-water who plays Guillermo on Weeds. There was even some fancy string work … And then three shifty late-middle-aged men approached Music&Ducks … conversation strangely under-developed and understated … although only one of them was in suspiciously stylish clothing, I was suspicious. Turned out the under-ness of it all was because they were Music&Ducks’s uncles – he satisfied my need for intrigue by acknowledging they were maybe mobsters, Irish mobsters. As for the band, I swore up and down they were from LA because I was so enthused about them but to my dismay, they’re from Portland. Music&Ducks: “They could be the house band for Quentin Tarantino.” The room smelled of the South and of men - I started missing the South … ha. UPDATE – lead singer’s FROM southern California and inspired by Gun Club and Roy Rogers – hot damn, no wonder we’re kindred.