David Allan Coe Preview

David Allan Coe
Joe’s, Chicago
Friday, January 13, 2006

David Allan Coe‘s first run-in with the law happened when he was only nine, and the result was allegedly an immediate trip to reform school. As the legend goes, Coe spent the better part of the next 20 years of his life in some sort of correctinal facility, including a stint in the Ohio State Penitentiary that occupied most of his 20s. Coe claims some of that time was on death row, which he earned for killing an inmate who demanded oral sex from him.

Sorting the truth from exaggeration from myth isn’t an easy task when it comes to Coe. But nonetheless, it’s those stories — fact or fiction — that have made him such an enigmatic and iconic figure in country music. Coe has transcended the boundaries between country music, rock, and blues (his first release, Penitentiary Blues, like the name implies, is far more blues than C&W) like nobody before him, with the possible exception of Johnny Cash.

While Coe may not be considered a forefather — a title often given to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson — of the “outlaw” movement that dominated country music during the ’70s, he undoubtedly reinforced its image with his long hair, earrings, and tattoos. Like most of those who rode the wave of outlaw country, Coe felt no loyalty to the strict rules of Nashville and often mocked them in his music. Take, for example, his cover of Steve Goodman‘s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” which, before the song’s last verse, he sarcastically says isn’t an ideal country & western song because it doesn’t mention mama, trains, trucks, prison, or getting drunk.

His rowdy, trend-bucking attitude earned him a legion of followers from across the spectrum of music fans. He may have summed up his fanbase best in “Longhaired Redneck” when he describes one of his shows taking place in a dive where “bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they’ll get out of here alive.” That spirit still lives in Coe today; his recent collaborations have included work with Kid Rock and Rebel Meets Rebel, an album Coe recorded with with former Pantera members Rex Brown, Vinnie Paul, and the late Dimebag Darrell. That record should be released in April.

Local honkey tonk outfit The Hoyle Brothers opens.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly