BREAK-NECK: Truckstop Honeymoon will play at the Lass O'Gowrie on Friday and the Grand Junction Hotel on Sunday.
WHEN a Newcastle promoter met a New Orleans-based couple at the WOODFORD FOLK FESTIVAL early this month he was blown away by their show and booked the duo.
Novocastrians can judge for themselves when TRUCKSTOP HONEYMOON play here this weekend.
Truckstop Honeymoon are KATIE EULISS and MIKE WEST .
Their touring show features Euliss on washtub bass and vocals and West on guitar, banjo, mandolin and vocals.
According to the duo there ``ain't nothin' nice about Truckstop Honeymoon''. Apart from playing banjos and washtubs, the two said they sang hell-bent songs about Jesus and adultery.
They play break-neck breakdowns and waltzes. In Truckstop Honeymoon's words, ``the music is like a Dodge with a burnt-out clutch: it has two speeds and no reverse''.
Euliss learnt guitar, piano and bucket bass in the streets of New Orleans.
Then she met West, an established solo artist.
About 10 years ago, the Australian-born West headed to America with a toothbrush, two clean shirts and a taste for hillbilly music.
``As a kid, I strummed guitar for loose change in train stations,'' if West said.
``One day I heard a guy picking a banjo in the street so loud that it drowned out the traffic noise. I knew then that it was the instrument for me.'' West settled in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, took up banjo and mandolin and began writing songs about his neighbourhood.
He has built an international reputation as an energetic entertainer who can get a Mardi if Gras crowd clogging and as an insightful lyricist with a skewed but accurate view of life in South Louisiana.
Since forming, Truckstop Honeymoon have toured abroad and recorded two albums.
Catch them at the LASS O'GOWRIE on Friday jan 21 with THE LAWNMOWERS from 8pm to 12am, on Sunday from 1pm to 4pm, or at the GRAND JUNCTION HOTEL on Sunday, 5pm to 9pm.
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