I balled it up recently at a live show by Rochester, NY's Frantic Flattops, with a hundred other rockin' dogs and kittens who turned out for the burn out in Detroit. It was the Flattops' third gig in these parts, and I was beaming to see a lot of familiar faces, leather jackets, dress shoes, Western shirts, and three kinds of pompadour hair: greasy, sprayed, and gelled. While the general look of the crowd might appear a li'l bit old-fashioned, we're all definitely decades removed from the original hillbilly cats who blasted and howled out the rock-a-billy revolution. Matter o'fact, this July will mark the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black's first recording session at Sun Records in Memphis, TN (talk about "real gone!"). The experienced know, of course, that rock-a-billy sounds were recorded since the late 1940's throughout the South and West by the likes of Hardrock Gunter, Roy Hall, Maddox Brothers & Rose, Moon Mullican, and countless others. A generation of poor boys walked into the humid back rooms of music shops, furniture stores, and radio stations, to cut records that they could use as chick magnets, promotional tickets for live radio programs, or to play in the saloons along Main Street, downtown (as opposed to the 'buckets of blood' honky-tonks out on Road DD). Before the rise of the Big El, all that strange boogie was country music, for lack of a market moniker. Rock-a-billy outlasted its rise and fall on the pop charts during the mid-Fifties through crazed musicians in small bars, rental halls, and local festivals. I gotta mention too, the time when I was channel-hopping the TV, and came upon a knocked-out documentary that featured two old cats picking the most rippin' rock-a-billy licks that I ever heard, stompin' their cowboy boots, and shoutin' a spine-chilling spiritual while members of the congregation danced with rattlesnakes held in their bare hands!!! Like the blues and country music, rock-a-billy rolls on, buddy-it's just something that a lot of folks can't let go of, at any cost. And the music's popularity is booming again, through a national network of bands, fans, and pulp magazines. My crystal Rat Fink tells me that we can expect to see and hear more in '94! While the rocket scientists in Europe still outdo us in putting together mind-ringing shows (for instance, Larry & Lorrie Collins- the former Collins Kids- will headline a festival in England this fall!), most red-blooded American cats are optimistic for the big beat in the States. The doghouse bassman for the Frantic Flattops, Hotrod Mike, says he's seen towns where rock-a-billy is more appreciated than in other places (ask him about Richmond, VA sometime), but audience numbers are growing all over. Besides the Flattops from out East, Chicago rock'n'roll stormed Detroit this past year, and a few new local bands just started makin' the rounds. We even got a good look and listen at Dallas, TX's Ronnie Dawson- TWICE!- who's been rocking since his first gigs on the Big 'D' Jamboree in the 1950's, and now he thrashes out that Texas twang hot enough to flat cool any competition. A festival called "Deep in the Heart of Texas" will bring rock-a-billy music to New Yak City's Carnegie Hall this April by way of Mr. Dawson and High Noon, a trio from Austin, TX. In this dee jay's lowdown, like ear to the rail, opinion, High Noon is one of the best young groups in the States, who write and wail that crazy beat. Their musical roster includes electric guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar, and a bull fiddle played for slap-back; and this arrangement brings us back around to the noise that Elvis, Scotty & Bill laid out 40 years ago. While beatin' my teeth over the phone with Shaun Young, who's the main set of pipes in High Noon, I was told that they're going to play the annual folk music festival in Kerrville, TX this May. The guys consider it an honor to be invited, and they see it as a good sign of recognition for rock-a-billy music. Over the years, rock-a-billy's been associated by radio listeners with country, the blues, a little swing and gospel, pop music, rock'n'roll, new wave (neo-rockabilly & psychobilly), and now...folk? Believe me, I found that last pill more'n a little tough to chew (especially when I felt puke rising to meet visions of Peter, Paul & Mary whispering the melody to "B-I-Bickey-Bi Bo-Bo-Go"), but the idea shouldn't be passed off too quickly. It only makes sense that this great hybrid of American popular music continues to rave on, and jump the boundaries of so many musical categories.