Tuesdays have been pretty nice in Burlington, Vermont lately with local Burlington musician Brett Hughes quietly refining his Honky Tonk jam sessions. For the past few months, at the small, intimate Radio Bean coffeehouse, he has repeatedly been joined by a rotating cast of characters that include Gordon Stone, Steve Hadeka (formerly of the Seth Yacovone Band), local singer/songwriter Marie Claire, Neil Cleary (of Missy Bly’s touring band) and Mike Gordon (formerly of Phish) just to name a very few.
While Mike Gordon has obviously been the attention grabber, he seems to be just as much a fan of the performing ensemble as the rest of the local midweek audience. And who wouldn’t be? With the resurgence of legitimate country with strains of early rock, the focus of Honky Tonk Tuesdays is to keep alive the spirit of some of yesteryears best songwriters and expose this age-old material to new listeners.
On one recent Tuesday in late February, highlights were a heart-wrenching take on Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and a comical upbeat reading of Del Reeves “My Can Do Can’t Keep Up With My Want To.” Mike Gordon took lead vocal duties on the Stanley Brother’s classic “Sea Of Regrets” with his deep vocal tones resonating throughout the venue. But the night’s biggest highlight came two songs from the end of the show with Hughes emotionally singing the cowboy ode to drunken romantic heartache, “There Stands The Glass.”
Brett Hughes has been around the Burlington music scene for quite a while now. He made his mark early on as the guitar player for regional favorite viperHouse. More recently he has been fronting Burlington’s Chrome Cowboys and Monoprix.
Glide’s Joe Adler recently caught up with the super busy Hughes to gain some insight into the spirit of the Honky Tonk Tuesdays.
Tell me about your background in the Vermont music scene?
Oh boy. I moved to Burlington to go to UVM, like a lot of people here do. Spent a good part of my time hanging out listening to live music, like a lot of people here do. Loved a band called Pine Island, hung around forever and finally got in a band with Jimmy Ryan and Gordon Stone from that band–The Decentz, an original new wave-y band with pedal steel guitar! I moved off to NYC for a while, then came back and played with Gordon some, started the Chrome Cowboys with him and Mark Ransom, played with Fortune Tellers and Barbacoa for awhile, then started playing with viperHouse in the original line-up in about 1995. I bailed out when they started needing to tour a lot – I had a young son and “responsibilities” that kept me working full-time, etc. – probably in late ’97. Neil Cleary and I started doing some singing together along the way, and formed the Whateverly Brothers, sometimes with Mark Spencer and Andy Cotton, both living in NYC. In late 2004 I did a TV soundtrack for Jay Craven’s “Windy Acres” series on VT ETV with Gordon Stone, for which we won a regional Emmy Award. I had been doing quite a bit of music for theater–particularly Very Merry Theater in their summer series, and for the Edmunds School dramatic program, directed by Donald Wright. I guess I’ve done about 8 original scores for all kinds of plays– a few Shakespeare adaptations (including “Big Top Tempest”–a “circus” version). I’m working on Alice In Wonderland right now for this summer.
Neil decided he didn’t want to carry on with WBs almost a year ago now, and I went out and formed Monoprix with Steve Hadeka and Tyler Bolles last summer to play some more rock originals. The Chrome Cowboys continue to plow ahead, playing gigs regularly. We did Dead Cowboys a few times–playing the real country tunes that the Grateful Dead did back in the early part of their run. They were sort of a cool country band for awhile, and people sort of forget that about them. Now I’m mostly focused on Monoprix and Honky Tonk Tuesday and the band we’re taking down to Bonnaroo this summer….
How did the Honky Tonk Tuesdays at Radio Bean originally come about?
Actually, I started out just sort of playing drums and occasionally getting up to sing a couple, behind Dan Bolles and David Stockhausen of Middle 8. They sort of… stopped showing up, I guess after awhile, so I kept at it and we put together some good fun nights along the way. It all started maybe last August, and we’ve done it nearly every week since, with a constantly evolving group of musicians, depending on who’s available. Lee (Anderson, owner of Radio Bean) has been very supportive, and it has really become a great, funny night. I really look forward to it every week, and try to learn at least a few new songs we’ve never done. There’s a lot of hanging on for dear life on the part of whoever happens to be playing– it’s pretty loose, but we usually pull it off without crashing and burning completely.
Who are some of your favorite musicians to play with during the Honky Tonk Tuesdays?
Hell, everyone’s been great– Ari Bolles was with us early on, playing bass and singing like a little red-haired angel. She’s out in Chicago, playing in a great band called Bakelite…something. Chris Michetti of RAQ was playing with us quite a bit when not touring, he still comes around when he can. Steve Hadeka is a great, swinging drummer, and he played regularly for awhile, but he’s awful busy–he’s in about a dozen bands, including Monoprix with me, so we let him off the hook. Mark Spencer’s been up several times- he’s just…unbelievable, that guy. He plays with a lot of different people–Kelly Willis, Jay Farrar, Laura Cantrell, Tammy Faye Starlite, Lisa Loeb! He was in Whateverly Brothers with Neil and I….
We’ve kind of settled into a pretty regular crew lately, with substitutions whenever it goes that way. Aya Inoue has been learning up nice little honky tonk heartbreak songs and singing them with love, Marie Claire has been gracing us with her piano playing and killer singing, Neil Cleary has been playing drums and getting up to do his show-stoppers on the mic, Gordon Stone is another busy guy who comes around as often as possible, he plays the bejeezus out of the steel. Scott Murawski plays with Max Creek, and he came up a few weeks back and just played beautifully–he’s a great listener, and plays these really nice solos that reference the melody of the tune, really nice all-around player. And of course Mike Gordon has been coming around for a few months, and he’s bringing us down to Bonnaroo in June to take the honky-tonk back to Tennessee as Mike Gordon and Ramble Dove….
What are some of the songs that you cover that are closest to your heart?
Well, there are plenty. Some that we don’t necessarily pull off as well as others yet, but we’ll get ’em. The ones that keep coming back and are a lot of fun anyway are – “There Stands The Glass,” “I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water,” “Bowling Green,” “My Home Ain’t In The Hall Of Fame,” “Jackson (with Marie),” “Walkin’ The Floor Over You,” “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young,” “I Am A Pilgrim,” “In Each Love Some Pain Must Fall” and “I’m Movin’ On.”
There are about 200 songs in the folder, and they’re all great. I just wish I could remember the lyrics and bang ’em out as they came into my head– working on it.
What’s in store for you in the near future? Gigs, Collaborations?
Well, as I said, I’m working on a score for Alice In Wonderland for Very Merry Theater, I’ve been writing a lot of songs for Monoprix and hope to get a record together this year–we’re also going out on the road with Swale and Ryan Power hopefully in early May. The Cowboys have a pretty busy summer usually, and of course, Mike Gordon and Ramble Dove will be playing at Bonnaroo, as well as doing a short tour around the northeast and a benefit for Bernie Sanders in June it looks like. Plenty coming up, yeah. And Honky Tonk Tuesday at Radio Bean every Tuesday night!
