I had to leave my Western Nevada Community College Photoshop class with Jayna Conkey early on Tuesday night to squeeze in a karaoke experience for this weekly review. That's unfortunate because each Photoshop lesson makes me feel like a kid learning to walk and talk.
Tuesday, I cut out a bright smiling rubber ducky and moved it over to a blue sky background, where it floated like an angel. Delightful!
I raced out and hurried through a load at the Laundry Lounge on Fifth Street, only to find the karaoke at Red's Old 395 had finished earlier in the evening. Joe Bob's Roadhouse was my back-up, but things had wrapped up earlier in the evening there, too. "They're supposed to go until one, but there was no business," explained bartender Johnny Riders.
When I walked into Kathy's Someplace Else, 4750 Highway 50 East, with Appeal pressman Cliff Rutherford, the four patrons were just leaving. That gave us some two-on-two time with proprietors Kathy Aguirre and Les Jones. Kathy says she was the one who brought karaoke to the Capitol City back in 1991. "Everybody laughed and said, 'It's a fad,' but it's not a fad if it makes you feel good," she said.
Kathy says her place is known for being accepting --Enot cliquey or exclusive. She says no matter how "terribly offkey" you sing, patrons will applaud.
"They may hate the way you sing, but they'll clap," said Les.
But don't think it's all terrible.
"We get some excellent singers. I've had a couple of girls go on to sing in bands," said Kathy.
"Not more, but Les" Jones says Kathy's daughter, Katie, can do a "Broken Wing" that'll curl your toes. Kathy and Katie are known for their mean duet of the Judds' version of "Blue Bayou."
By way of a demonstration, Kathy stepped onto the little fenced-off stage and performed Julie London's "Cry Me a River." She soared through the highs and lows of the melody -- freezing the three of us at the bar into awed silence with half-full Bud Lights. Her eyes closed, Kathy put the finishing touches on the poignant piece while a slot machine punctuated her performance with an appreciative "doodly-DEE do LEE."
Kathy, who does a blusey "Summertime" and an operatic "Play That Funky Music," is modest about her grace on stage. "I get applause, but it's only because I own the damn place," she said with a laugh.
Les doesn't sing, but he says he has learned to deal with pretend performers wielding very real microphones.
"I've been married eight times and helped raise 37 kids so I've learned how to tune things out," he says.
Cliff doesn't sing either -- at least on stage. He told Kathy he only sings in the shower, but she said she could put up a shower curtain on the stag if that would make him more comfortable.
"You've got a lot of charisma, Kathy," Cliff told her. "It would be dangerous for me to hang out here because eventually you'd get me up there."
"You bet I would."
"Then all my emotion would come out."
"You be smilin' from ear to ear."
Karaoke side note: Thanks to Nora Johnson, who used hand signals to help me with my tempo on the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" at Mo & Sluggo's last week. Good luck to the talented Sunni Tierney, who is trying out for Star Search.
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While Bobby Joe Holman's band, Blues Groove, has started playing at Daddy Dicks on Thursdays, Holman himself still plays there on Mondays.
"It's a nice little kick-back-Jack kind of thing," says Holman. He uses a drum machine to lay down the rhythm. It may be no substitute for the band's drummer, Floyd Sneed, formerly of Three Dog Night, but it still has Carson's only blues. Holman says he plays old Jimmy Reed, Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters. Call Daddy's for more details at 885-0558.
Call Karl Horeis for entertainment coverage at 881-1219.
