Press

Bag 'A' Bones DVD cooks up the blues

By Mark Bialczak, Music Critic
The Post Standard 2005-11-06

Hamilton jam-blues band Bag 'A' Bones has stuck to its mission of making cool original music the last dozen years.

With four CDs to their credit, lead singer-guitarist-harmonica player Steve Golley, guitarist Marty Mettler, bassist Carl Pickett, drummer Ron Morgan and percussionist Jymn Chamberlain found a project even bigger than the recording of CD number five.

They rented the long-abandoned stage at the Earlville Community Center, moved in lights, cameras and sound equipment and made a DVD.

The guys in the band have always called the magic that can happen when musicians are clicking "Sadie." Hence, the title "The Quest for Sadie."

On this concert-and-more DVD, Bag 'A' Bones caught that old girl and charmed her big time for the entire evening.

The jam-blues originals of the band come alive on that old school stage as Golley and mates lay down a blues-jam groove easy to latch onto.

The musicians invited 100 or so guests to witness the performance in October 2003, and they dance and twirl and have a great time as Bag 'A' Bones pours its love into cool songs like "Left Behind," "Good Enough" and "All I Need."

The DVD also includes some fun and funny outtakes, particularly "Law and Order," where the band had a friend in a police uniform "arrest" and haul away Pickett.

Catch the premiere: "The Quest for Sadie" will be shown at 7 and 9 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Palace Theater in Hamilton. Admission will be $10, and proceeds - the band calls it the Sadie fund - will benefit the Community Action Program of Madison County, earmarked to help those in need pay heating costs this winter.

On the Internet: www.steve golley.com. Information about contributing to the Sadie fund can be found there.