Ragged Glory plays tonight at the Velvet Lounge.
Can’t afford to pay $100 for a cheap seat at Neil Young’s upcoming DAR stop in November? You’re in luck. During our last chat with Ryan Walker from The Beanstalk Library, we found out he also put together a Neil Young cover band a few years back. They call themselves Ragged Glory, and the lineup plays something like a who’s who of up-and-coming local bands: Brian Kent (of the Beanstalk Library) on guitar and vocals, Dave Eelman on guitar and vocals, Walker on still more guitar and vocals, Dallas Hudgens on bass, and John Thayer (Exit Clov) on drums. On top of that, Tom Hnatow of These United States will play some pedal steel and join a whole slew of other guests.
The band’s getting back together tonight for the release of bassist (and author) Dallas Hudgens’s new book, Season of Gene. The book is, in Hudgeons’s own words, “about a guy whose life revolves around video games, painkillers, and his Friday night baseball league”, and it’s already receiving good reviews – Kirkus called it “a nourishing slice of Americana, expletives and all.” Sounds like Neil himself might even enjoy it.
The whole shindig is going down at Velvet Lounge, and Hudgens is promising free copies of the book and cupcakes. Walker took a few minutes to chat with us about Neil Young, ticket prices for his upcoming show, and playing at pool parties.
How did this whole project come about?
In 2002, my friend Dave, also a big Neil fan, had gotten some PA equipment in his basement and asked me if I wanted to come over and just jam for fun. His friend, writer and bassist-on-the-side Dallas, came over as well and we started working up some stuff, mostly Neil songs, but some tunes by Dylan and other similar artists. We got a gig playing at a friend’s party and rounded up a couple of others to fill out the lineup. As we were getting ready to play, the host of the party asked how she should introduce us. I happened to glance at a Neil Young CD booklet that someone was using as a lyric sheet and just told her the title of the record, Ragged Glory. It stuck.
We played a lot of shows over the next several years, some much more bizarre than others, at parties and occasionally at bars in Northern Virginia, with different lineups. Once Beanstalk started taking more of our time we couldn’t really do it anymore, so Ragged Glory hasn’t played in over a year. But Dallas and I still played together in different settings and remained great friends and when he got ready to publish Season of Gene, we decided it would be a good time to get this band back together and play to celebrate.
