Second Local Band Ready To Take The Big City By Storm

By: Brad Barnes
Date: July 29, 2005
From: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

  The hillbillies are loading up the truck and going to the big city.

  Old-school honky tonk revivalists Joey Allcorn & the Hillbilly Band have been chosen to play the Atlantis new music fest in Atlanta next month.

  That makes them the second Columbus act to get the call-up this year, alongside modern rockers Lakeside , and only the third band in the festival's eight-year history.

  Allcorn performs midnight on Friday at the Atlanta Room at Smith's Olde Bar. That's two hours after Lakeside's set at the Masquerade, if you're keeping score, so it'd be easy for local music fans to support both acts with only one drive north.

  Those not familiar with Allcorn probably don't need much more than the title of his latest EP to go by: "Sex, Drugs and Yodeling."

  He's an avid enthusiast of Hank Williams the First and Johnny Cash , but he thinks country music "started going bad in the '60s -- when they added strings and got into the Nashville sound thing, with Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley ."

  He's got a bass player with one of those big, ol' stand-up basses and an honest-to-god pedal steel player.

  Atlantis is a four-day music conference and festival in the vein of Austin, Texas' famed South by Southwest. Up-and-coming bands are booked all over town, and the place is crawling with music executives in search of future stars.

  For music buffs, it's a great place to kill some hours.

  The set at Smith's will set you back a fin unless you've got an all-access wristband. Six bands are booked through the night in the Atlanta room, including fellow rockabilly players in Sonoramic Commando closing the show at 1 a.m.

  For more on the festival, visit www.atlantismusic.com.