Marley's Ghost bring 40 years of West Coast honky-tonk to Hideaway on Lee

The long-running Americana band plays Lafayette on Saturday, November 28, touring behind its Larry Campbell-produced album Honky Tonk.

Twin fiddles, pedal steel and harmony singing from a band that's been at it for forty years. That's what's coming to Lee Avenue the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Marley's Ghost play Hideaway on Lee on Saturday, November 28. Doors are at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8. Tickets are $15 to $20 through Hideaway on Lee. The date was announced October 22. The band's own site has said for a while that it was heading south this November for a Lafayette show; now there's a room attached to it.

Don't be misled by the name: this isn't a reggae tribute. Marley's Ghost is an American roots band, based between Washington and Northern California, that has been together since the mid-1980s. Its lineup has long been Mike Phelan, Ed Littlefield Jr., Dan Wheetman, Jon Wilcox, Jerry Fletcher and Bob Nichols, and it has worked its way through country, folk, gospel and Western swing over a dozen records.

The reason for this trip is *Honky Tonk*, released May 19 on Sage Arts and marking the band's 40th anniversary. Larry Campbell produced it. It's 14 songs, mostly covers, drawn from the honky-tonk canon: Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and Merle Haggard and Mel Tillis. The tracklist runs from "Invitation to the Blues" and "Honky Tonk Song" through "Burn Another Honky Tonk Down" and "Rockin' Chair Money" to "Birmingham Bounce" at the close. Twangville called it a mixtape of classic country for the band's fans, and Obscure Sound heard an Americana record built on twin fiddles, pedal steel and stacked harmonies.

Fourteen honky-tonk songs, twin fiddles, pedal steel and a band forty years in.

That last part is the draw. A band with this many singers and this much time on the road together doesn't need a big room to make a big sound, and a club like Hideaway on Lee is a good place to hear harmonies up close. At $15 to $20, it's also one of the cheaper ways to spend the holiday weekend out of the house.

The band's site has hinted at another southern show still to be announced. For now, Lafayette is the one on the books.

If you're bringing family who are in town for Thanksgiving, this is an easy sell: the songs are ones a lot of older relatives will recognize, played by people who obviously love them. Doors at 7 gives you time to get settled before the band starts at 8.

Forty years in, Marley's Ghost made a record of other people's honky-tonk songs, and it sounds like a band that has earned the right to play them. Lafayette gets to hear it in person on November 28.

Sources: Hideaway on Lee – Events (hideawayonlee.com); Marley's Ghost (official site) (marleysghost.com); Storied West Coast Group Marley's Ghost Celebrate 40th Anniversary With Vibrant New Album Produced By Larry Campbell (All About Jazz) (allaboutjazz.com); Marley's Ghost – Honky Tonk (Twangville) (twangville.com); Marley's Ghost – 'Honky Tonk' (Obscure Sound) (obscuresound.com); Marley's Ghost – 'Honky Tonk' album review (V13) (v13.net); Marley's Ghost (band) (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); Honky Tonk, Marley's Ghost (Qobuz) (qobuz.com)