New Year's Eve 2010

I've played each of the five installments of Highway 99 Blues Club's "Hayride To Hell" New Year's Eve bashes.

[disclosure: I am the venue's Music Director, I book the talent for the event and my brother owns the venue - which means, to an extent, as that one chick sang, "It's my party and I'll play if I want to"]

The format for this annual extravaganza includes 3-4 artists of Americana music with an emphasis on rockabilly, some live burlesque and cabaret dancers, and I play records on stage from the time doors open until the live entertainment begins (2 hours) and during all the in-betweens (a handful of 10-20 minute pieces) as we quickly turn the stage over between bands and dancers. The idea and result: continuous live on-stage entertainment from 6pm til 2am.

The concept is, while so many clubs charge an extraordinary price for what usually amounts to an ordinary show (haven't we all at some point paid $50-70 for a ticket to see a show we can otherwise see for $15-25 on any other date?), at Highway 99 Blues Club we simply reverse the trend and charge an ordinary price ($15 this year) for an extraordinary bill of entertainment (4 live music artists + 2 world-class burlesque performers and some hack spinning records).

This year's line-up:
Music
Tumbledown: insurgent alt.punk.country led by MxPx frontman Mike Herrera. Holy CRAP, this band is GOOD.
Ruby Dee & the Snakehandlers - Austin-based honkeytonk juggernaut, imagine Loretta Lynn fronts a band with Springsteen on lead guitar and Bruce, aka Jorge Harada, gets to hog all the solos.
The Black Crabs - one of Seattle's few tried and true (best? I'll make that case) traditional rockabilly bands.
MARK PICKEREL - a very special solo performance by an artist whose pedigree includes being a founding member of Screaming Trees, an early member of Nirvana, and whose credits include work with Neko Case and Mark Lanegan.

Burlesque & Cabaret
The Shanghai Pearl performed solo, and also with the bands. Most notably, she danced while Tumbledown played Link Wray's "Rumble" after midnight.
Fuchsia Foxx killed with her arty belly dancing and holiday-themed cabaret.

MY PART
I had a blast playing an all-vinyl set. From memory, here's a list - way out of order - of the tunes on which I most enjoyed dropping the needle:

Terry Evans & Bobby King - Let Love Begin
Wanda Jackson - Thunder on the Mountain
Jerry Lee Lewis - It'll Be Me
Sam Cooke - Having a Party
J. Geils Band - I Do, Looking For a Love
Roy Orbison - Problem Child
Little Richard - Lucille
Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven, Rock & Roll Music
Treat Her Right - I Think She Likes Me
Imelda May - Johnny Got a Boom Boom
James Brown - Escape-Ism Pt. 1
The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group - John Henry
Bob Dylan - Most Like You Go Your Way (Mark Ronson remix)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Hate Myself For Loving You
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
The Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away
Bruce Springsteen - Ramrod
Otis Redding - Down in the Valley
ZZ Top - Tube Snake Boogie
The Clash - Police & Thieves
Aerosmith - Big Ten Inch Record
Elvis Presley - I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
The Black Keys - Tighten Up
Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
Dion - The Wanderer
X - Burning House of Love
The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death
The Blasters - Hollywood Bed
Devo - Fresh
Hank Williams - I Won't Be Home No More
The Kinks - Beautiful Delilah
Blood, Sweat, & Tears - Spinning Wheel
Link Wray - Good Good Lovin'
Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Ain't That a Bitch
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
Ram Jam - Black Betty [Ben Liebrand remix]
Wilson Picket- Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Jimmy Smith - Hoochie Coochie Man

Link text here