The glory days of Nashville’s 1980s alternative music movement are long gone — the smoke stench at the still-loved Gold Rush and the gut-turning glory of the long-gone Empress Chili were talismans of a joyous past for folks fortunate enough to have reveled in those nights on Elliston Place. But the one person who perhaps best defined that magical rock ’n’ roll scene stands tall to this day, a 6-foot-3 gentleman with a baritone Southern drawl and a skill for singing about dwelling in boarding houses and shopping at thrift stores in such a manner as to have us yearning for such a lifestyle. We know this eccentric singer-guitarist as Webb Wilder, born in Hattiesburg, Miss., as John Webb McMurry. Webb is now 64 years old and the de facto elder statesman of the musicians of that aforementioned period, a time when Jason and the Scorchers and Raging Fire brought roaring rock fury to what was a very different Music City. A Webb Wilder concert is as much stand-up comedy, musical theater and performance art as it is blistering music. And it’s genius. Deftly blending instrumental and lyrical elements of roots rock, country and blues (with a tinge of punk and 1970s British power pop added for good measure), Webb and his always-dependable Beatnecks (for this show, Tom Comet, Bob Williams and Rick Schell) will be performing almost two years to the day after Georgia-based Paste Magazine ranked the band’s 1986 debut album, It Came From Nashville, No. 45 on its “50 Best Southern Rock Albums of All Time” list. A well-deserved honor, indeed. Wilder hosts the Americana Countdown show on WMOT-FM and performs live less frequently than he once did. But when he does, he ignites the stage like a “human cannonball” who delivers “loud music” — that $40 fine be damned. As “the last of the full-grown men” originally sang in 1991, “Having a ball, bouncing off the wall, you’re never too small to hit the big-time,” let us remember that success is defined many ways. Webb, you will always be big-time in this city. WILLIAM WILLIAMS
Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks
