------Feature • Rehab------Making Musical Stew By Evan Gillespie shout along with at last call. A cult hit was born. “Fans knew the words at every show,” says You’ll be forgiven if you don’t know the name of Boone. “It was becoming like Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ Rehab’s most successful single, even if you know all or something. People were using it to close bars.” THE MOMPER the lyrics, even if you’ve sung along with it at the top And it wasn’t hip-hop bars that were turning on of your lungs at closing time at your favorite watering the lights after playing “Sittin’ at a Bar.” It was coun- HOME hole. The song’s title has been caught up in the band’s try bars, and the crowds at Rehab shows were starting business tussle with record labels, and it doesn’t have to look like country crowds. much to do with the spirit of the song, anyway. The next couple of years were a whirlwind. Re------Feature • Wildwood Park------Rehab first got rolling in Warner Robins, Georgia hab got invited along on the Warped Tour and then, as where Danny Alexander and Denny Campbell, both big labels will do when a band doesn’t sell millions of substance abusers, met while in – you guessed it – records, Epic lost interest. When the band’s Epic deal rehab. The pair hooked up with Jason Brooks, chose evaporated, Arshid Entertainment released the 22- some Georgia-gangsta nicknames (“Boone” for Al- track Cuz We Can online in 2002, and soon afterwards exander, “Steaknife” for Campbell and “Brooks Buford” for Open Doors Brooks) and formed a band that would By Gregory C. Jones register seeks to recognize homes mash together the and areas that preserve the original kinds of music that A select group of homeown- integrity of the buildings. the trio loved: South- ers in Fort Wayne’s Wildwood “We look at the state of the ern rock, country and Park neighborhood will open their house; does it have the original hip-hop. doors and gardens Saturday, June structure evident; if the exterior Rehab, the band, 16 from noon to 5 p.m. as part of has not been altered,” Graf said. released their first, ARCH’s Home and Garden Tour. “Wildwood has a ton of original self-produced album, ARCH, Fort To Whom It May Wayne’s organiza- WILDWOOD PARK HOME & Consume, in 1999. tion for historic The album was a 25- home preservation, GARDEN TOUR track monster and in- annually sponsors Saturday, June 16 • 12-5 p.m. cluded song titles like the tour as part of Freeman Street & North Washington “Inertia Explained,” its community edu- “Edge of Implosion,” cation program and Road entrance, Fort Wayne “Life is Not a Bless- chose the Wild- Tix.: $10 adv., $12 day of tour, ing” and “Suicidal rehab wood community Expectance”; what- for a variety of reasons. stuff.” ever this stuff was, it wasn’t w/Little Green Men & Brother Boone and Buford split. Boone ARCH Program Specialist Graf notes in the case of the going to get played on country Thursday, June 21 • 8:30 p.m. carried Rehab forward on his Lori Graf said the many styles of Seyfert home that as his fam- radio, in Georgia or anywhere Rusty Spur Saloon own, reverting to his given name, homes in the neighborhood and ily grew, so did the snack-maker’s else. Still, it was fresh enough Danny Alexander, but keeping the layout of the roads made the home, but the original structure is – and independently success- 10350 Leo Rd., Fort Wayne the band name the same. choice of touring Wildwood an ob- still evident. ful enough – to draw the at- Tix.: $10 General, $25 VIP In 2005, there was another vious one. Construction in the district tention of major record labels, 260-755-3465 self-produced release, Graffiti the “All the roads wind with the began about 1925 and slowed and Epic Records offered the World, featuring a Rehab reboot natural landscape, so there is no during the Depression, but, said group a deal. Steaknife would, unfortunately, have that included Demun Jones on vocals, Mike Hartnett grid,” Graf said. “It’s very wind- Graf, Lee and Helen Ninde, who other commitments that would prevent him from con- and Foz on guitars, Hano Leathers on bass and Chris ing. Roads are planned to flow started Wildwood Builders and de- tinuing with the band, but Boone and Buford took the Hood on drums. Hartnett, in particular, kept Rehab’s with nature. If there was a tree in signed and built the neighborhood, deal. Rehab’s big label debut, Southern Comfort, was rock/pop/hip hop pedigree intact, bringing with him the way, they didn’t move the tree; believed only the finest homes released in 2000. experience collaborating with the likes of Fergie, they moved the road.” should be erected. Restrictions Rehab continued to be unclassifiable, and the Outkast and Pink. A couple of years later, Steaknife Visitors can expect to see were placed only on quality, not tracks on Southern Comfort didn’t make things any returned as well, and this new version of Rehab had a Tudor-style homes as well as on size. clearer; guest artists on the album included Cee- solid, experienced lineup. contemporary, colonials, ranches, The tour will also feature a Lo Green and Atlanta-based cabaret singer Mandy Alexander and his band kept working hard, but mid-century modern and Usonian- farmers market, face painting for Lauderdale. Despite Boone and Buford’s Southern it was the long-lived appeal of “Sittin’ at a Bar” that modern while touring the dozen kids, a balloon artist and food ven- roots, they were still avoiding being pigeon-holed as made things interesting. Everyone wanted a piece of homes and gardens. dors. “The neighborhood wanted a a Southern rock band, and comparisons to 311, Out- the song, fans and record labels alike. In 2008, Epic, The homes (or former homes) little festival along with the tour,” kast and Sublime were more likely to come up than which hadn’t had any interest in Rehab since 2003, of many prominent business peo- Graf said. were any references to Lynyrd Skynyrd. If it weren’t decided to re-order the tracks on Southern Comfort ple are part of the tour – including Tickets can be purchased by for one track on Southern Comfort, a little story-song and re-release the album under a different name. The the Seyfert home; a home owned calling 260-426-5117, online at called “Sittin’ at a Bar,” Rehab might have remained a album’s new title? Sittin’ at a Bar. In an attempt to by Patricia Miller, co-founder of www.archfw.org and by accessing rock-rap band. regain control of his band’s most popular product, Vera Bradley; and the home of the Arts United ticket office. There “Sittin’ at a Bar” isn’t exactly a feel-good, honky- Alexander re-recorded the song and included it as a Charles and Jackie Momper. is a $1 surcharge for using the Arts tonk tune. It’s about a guy who violates his parole by bonus track on a re-release of Graffiti the World. He “The Momper’s house is on United box office. Tickets are $10 getting drunk, goes home and gets in a fight with his also gave the song a new title: “Bartender Song.” the tour (and it’s for sale),” Graf in advance and $12 the day of the lady, steals her daddy’s car, wrecks it, flees and then “I had always wanted to re-record it anyway,” said. “It actually has 23 closets.” tour. waits, resigned, for his inevitable return to incarcera- says Alexander. “Even when I went back to slinging The Wildwood Park Neigh- The tour begins at the Free- tion. The song is saturated with grim pessimism, but hot wings, people would come up to me and say ‘you borhood has been nominated as a man Street and North Washington it also has down-home cred, with lots of references to ever hear this song? They’d play ‘Bartender Song,’ Historic District on the National Road entrance where a map will be trailer parks and Chevrolets. Best of all, it’s about get- Continued on page 17 Register of Historic Places. The provided. ting drunk and not caring, making it the ideal song to 6------www.whatzup.com------June 14, ’12 COUNTRY LINE - From Page 4 to sing on it, and we’ll definitely be adding Shot is honored to be playing with a pow- the song to our regular performance list after erhouse lineup. “We’re playing with such Down the Country Line.” amazing musicians, some of the best that Rounding out the lineup and performing Fort Wayne has to offer, on a stage that is so the classic country stylings of Hank Wil- full of history. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime op- liams Sr. are Huckleberry Blue. Take note: portunity. To perform on that stage for the this will be fans’ last opportunity to see second time is an honor, and we feel truly Huckleberry Blue perform. blessed.” “The story of Huckleberry Blue will Ultimately, says Poffenberger, that’s be the highlight of the event. The band what Down the Country Line and other Em- performed at Down the Line 4 and by all bassy events are about: people and the con- accounts stole the show,” explained Pof- nections they make. fenberger. “After several years together, “At every show and on every tour, we the band members made the decision to hear a story about a personal connection disband to focus on their busy lives at the with the Embassy Theatre. Sometimes it’s end of spring. When we pitched this show, a grandfather who installed the marble floor they all decided to stay together and make or the memory of performing with a dance the Embassy stage their last performance to- group at the Festival of Trees,” she said. gether.” “That’s what the band members are get- Stork, who has played with Huckleberry ting from their performance: the memory of Blue before, remembers being awestruck standing on the Embassy stage, staring out by the band. “They are the true classic local into the crowd and playing their hearts out. country music band,” she said. “I remem- “That’s also why thousands of patrons ber the first I played with them, I thought to come to Down the Line concerts each year. myself, ‘This is crazy! I can’t believe I am What better way to spend a Saturday eve- sharing the stage with Huckleberry Blue!’” ning than at the Embassy, listening (and She credits Huckleberry Blue among others singing along to) songs you know, being as inspiring her to pursue her own country played by artists that are really happy to be music dreams. sharing their music? There is nothing better Calling the Embassy’s Down the Line than leaving a concert with the tingle and series “a real testament to how strong the lo- rush you get at a live show. And we’re proud cal music scene is,” Fisher said that Sugar to offer that feeling.”

REHAB - From Page 6 and I’d nod and say, ‘Yeah, I believe I know roots; the single “King of Tweakers” is illus- that one.’ I guess it’s a unique situation when trated by a music video in which Alexander an artist has to cover his or her own song to appears as a man whose problems with con- finally make it a hit.” trolled substances look to be anything but The re-released song was a bigger hit rehabilitated. than ever, and smelling the possibility of That gritty territory is a good place for more sales, the big labels came sniffing Alexander and Rehab to be, in the place around Rehab once again. Sony, the parent where the lines between rock and country company of Epic, expressed some interest and hip-hop are extremely fuzzy. The music in re-signing the band, but it was Universal illuminates the darkest country back roads, Republic that managed to sign Rehab to a the kind of stuff that makes like new deal. Between 2008 and 2010, the label Toby Keith’s “I Wanna Talk About Me” released four Rehab albums: the new ver- sound like a preschool sing-along. Rehab sion of Graffiti the World; a collection of are on tour this summer with , live tracks and previously unreleased mate- the LACS, JB and the Moonshine Band and rial called Live and Acoustic; a very country , whose “Dirt Road Anthem” was album called Welcome Home; and a 13-track turned into a mainstream country rap hit by promo album called Fixtape. Jason Aldean. The Declaration of Indepen- The Universal Republic deal ran its dence Tour is a quirky, eclectic mix of styles course eventually, too, and the 2012 album that promises plenty of surprises. One thing Gullible’s Travels was released on the inde- that’s certain, however, is which song the pendent label Average Joe’s Entertainment. crowd is going to be singing along with just The album features a return to Rehab’s gritty before the lights come up.

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