TRUCKSTOP HONEYMOON

Steamboat in a Cornfield

2012-03-25

The band Truckstop Honeymoon is comprised of Mike West, Katie Euliss, Colon Mahoney, Nate Craft, Lance Fahy, John Thompson and Larry Maxey. The band name? West and Euliss spent their wedding night at the Tiger Truck Stop between Louisiana and the Atchafalya Swamp. With roots originally set in New Orleans, their home was destroyed with Hurricane Katrina and the couple eventually moved to Kansas. As the liner notes indicate, West and Euliss march every Mardi Gras through sleet and snow, blowing on horns and banging on drums, sounding like a riverboat plowing through a cornfield. Mike states the band is progressively being influenced by old R&B songs, 1930s show tunes and vaudeville--evident in tracks “Play Along,” “She Wants to Be French,” and “The Key.” There are songs poking fun: “Your Mother is a Sociopath” and “Leidseplein”—great tunes for Mother’s Day! I wish parts 1 and 2 of the “Kaw River Rag” were joined in one sweeping banjo instrumental…because separately they are little gems. “On the Prairie Now,” (their lament to either freezing to death or wiping the sweat from their brow) “Corn Maze,” and “Steamboat in a Cornfield” tracks 2, 14, and 15, respectively, are favored tunes. According to binkyrecords.com, Truckstop Honeymoon plays “break-neck breakdowns or waltzes. Their music is like a Dodge with a burned-out clutch: it has two speeds and no reverse.” I couldn’t say it more eloquently myself. – Pam VandeKerkhoff

Quick Links:

More reviews tagged #Folk

  • reviewed 08/2008

    DAR WILLIAMS
    Promised Land

  • reviewed 10/2004

    Amos Garrett
    Acoustic Album

  • reviewed 02/2011

    FEIST
    Look At What The Light Did Now

  • reviewed 08/2017

    Jefferson Ross
    Live At Hillbilly Haiku

  • reviewed 05/2015

    Tomo Nakayama
    Fog on the Lens

  • reviewed 01/2010

    SUFJAN STEVENS
    The BQE

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.