Two Tons of Steel
Texas band Two Tons of Steel might be described as equal parts Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello with a liberal dose of Buddy Holly and a dollop of The Ramones. It has a one-of-a-kind sound that bandleader and front man Kevin Geil likes to call “countrybilly.”
Now the sound's on a DVD-plus-CD for all time, TWO TONS TUESDAY LIVE! (Palo Duro Records, June 2006), which celebrates the band's 11-years-running summer concert series at the oldest dance hall in Texas, 125-year-old Gruene Hall, where the band draws more than 12,000 fans annually and holds every attendance record the venue has). The DVD won a Gold Remi award in April at the 39th WorldFest Independent Film Festival in Houston two months before its release.
The band's sound ñ classic country woven (some might say twisted) with some hillbilly, swing, even a bit of punky metal ñ has boosted the combo to renown as the face of Texas music. A performance taped at Gruene Hall shows daily at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum in Austin in the internationally released IMAX film “Texas: The Big Picture”; so does the bands performance in the roots-country documentary that screens continuously at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame. Two Tons of Steel composed and performed the soundtrack for the indie film “Barbecue: A Texas Love Story,” which features Dan Rather, Kinky Friedman, Ray Benson and narration by former Gov. Ann Richards.
Two Tons of Steel sells outs show across Europe when its plays over there, and it's the only Texas band ever to be invited to perform in Cuba; one of the band's signature songs, “Havana Moon,” was inspired by that 1997 trip. People come from far and near when they hear the band is playing one of the Grand Ole Opry's popular Plaza Parties. For eight years, it's been voted Best Country Band by San Antonio Current, its hometown weekly. Write-ups featuring the band include a recent one in the LIFE magazine newspaper insert that reaches 27 million readers.
Lead singer Geil handles acoustic guitar with enthusiasm and dances around like a Chuck Berry hybrid. Unsurpassed musicianship flows from Dennis Fallon on electric guitar, Chris Rhoades plucking the upright bass like nobody's business, Chris Dodds on drums and percussion, and Texas Steel Guitar Hall of Fame member Denny Mathis adding more muscle.
While the band's name came from a car, specifically the weight of Geil's restored 1956 hardtop Cadillac, the name could also describe the force of musical energy released during one of its live shows, blowing away audiences from Texas honky-tonks to crowds like the 80,000 fans expected nightly for Chattanooga's RiverBend 2006 festival that Two Tons plays in mid-June.
On stage, recorded live or on a studio release, Two Tons of Steel packs a wallop, combining witty originals (“Baby You Got Me”) and covers not first thought of (The Ramones' “I Wanna Be Sedated” from VEGAS is an extreme example).
Its previous album (its eighth), the vibrant and crazy-good VEGAS (April 2005), finally put Two Tons on a supportive record label, Palo Duro, whose mission is to showcase Texas music and which has played up the band's steel-driven sound.