Keep Americana Weird: The Gourds

WHEN THEY CAME TOGETHER in Austin in the mid-'90s, the Gourds were seeking a unique creole of sound and nonsense. "I wanted to take surrealist poetry and lay it over primitive, old-timey roots music -- simple musical forms," explains Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell.

The country is so broad and so strange that you wouldn't think tagging music as "Americana" would necessarily limit it. But you'd be wrong.

"It was interesting to see how people reacted," Russell says. "A lot of writers were just befuddled by it, and some of them were angered by it. They hated it; it physically turned them off."

A kick-ass live show, however, can go a long way toward dispelling bad press. An opening slot for the Old 97's helped secure a devoted fanbase.

Expect more than a few double-digit Gourdsgoers at the State Theatre on Friday, when the band plays old favorites and previews tunes from next year's "Haymaker!"

And expect some new fans, won over by Russell's emotional directness on 2007's "Noble Creatures." Though he plays mandolin and guitar on the disc, Russell worked up the haunting "Promenade" on the lazy man's ax, the humble uke.

Having received the four-string gospel from a reformed West Texas hard-rocker named Jethro, Russell now preaches it himself: "There's something about the ukulele when you play chords, the way it is tuned and the way the strings are, that certain chords just sound better. They sound magical in a way."

But don't go expecting "Tiny Bubbles." Co-bandleader Jimmy Smith skews the set list with off-kilter tunes such as "The Gyroscopic," whose "reincarnated bottle-nosers" gave "Creatures" its title and which closes with a one-line hedonist manifesto: "Only in horniness will we prevail."

» State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St. Falls Church; Fri., 7 p.m. (doors), 9 p.m. (show), $16; 703-237-0300. (East Falls Church)

Written by Express contributor Glenn Dixon
Photo by Andy Goodwin