Rockin
Daddies: The Greyhounds
by
Peter Aaron
......with an invitation
to jam. No stranger to radio himself, Millman has hosted the popular “Jukebox
Jamboree” show on Poughkeepsie’s WVKR for the last 20
years. Spinning up a winning mix of garage rock, surf,punk, early
R&B, and, of course, much rockabilly, the program air Fridays
from 7 to 9pm at 91.3 FM.
Currently,
the band claims a repertoire of over 120 songs, mostly littleknown
nuggets mined from rare records and reissue compilations; 14 of
these road-tested rockers comprise the quintet’s debut, SongsOur
Daddies Taught Us [Pair of Dice Records, 2004]. “People sometimes
criticize us and say we’re just a cover band,” says
Greenfield. “But when we play the songs we don’t just
duplicate them; they always come out as Greyhounds music.”
[The group has, however, been steadily adding originals to its songbook,
several of which are slated for a follow-up CD set to be recorded
this winter.]
Live,
The Greyhounds really do make the songs their own, and in a big
way. A recent gig in Woodstock saw the towering Millman dancing
atop the club’s bar, cordless mic in hand and quite literally
sweating Elvis as the band ran through raucous versions of Rusty
York’s “Sugaree,” Gene Summers’s “School
of Rock ’n’ Roll,” and other hot gems. But local
club appearances are rare events for The Greyhounds. In the summer,
the band finds more work on the vintage car show circuit, which
sometimes pays better and has been a natural fit for the outfit’s
retro-leaning aesthetic. “That Woodstock show was really good,
since we were opening for [Boston garage rockers] The Cha rms ,
the c rowd was already familiar with our type of music,” Millman
recalls. “But a lot of the time playing bars has been real
a drag for us. Most people want to hear, you know, whatever the
current ‘hit’ music is.”
CONTINUE...
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