6The Daily Tar HeelFriday, February
Here beats one true
rock 'n' roll heart
By ALAN MASON
Staff Writer
With the advent of technology in
popular music today and many
bands trading in their guitars and
drums for synthesizers and computer
keyboards, it's nice to hear a band
with a fundamantal, direct approach
to rock n' roll. Tim Krekel and the
Sluggers, who will perform at Cat's
Cradle this weekend, get closer to
the heart of rock V roll than Huey
Lewis will ever dream about, and
Krekel's grass-roots approach to
rock 'n' roll has kept audiences
raving across the South.
Krekel, who grew up in Louisville,
Ky., has ties with the very beginnings
of rock 'n' roll. He has played with
Carl Perkins (one of the original Sun
recording artists, along with Elvis
Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis) and
Billy Swan, who played rave-up
rockabilly in the mid-70s, long
before it was the "in" thing to do.
Most prominently he was Jimmy
Buffett's lead guitarist during that
singer's heyday, and he played on
Buffett's laid-back, Seabreeze hit,
"Margaritaville."
Krekel's music has run the gamut
as well. In 1979 he put out an album,
Crazy Me, on Capricorn Records.
It won critical acclaim, but the record
label folded soon after the album was
released, so it is out of print. Last
year Crystal Gayle recorded Krekel's
"Turning Away," and it ended up
as a number-one hit on the country
charts. Dr. Feelgood, a British
rhythm and blues outfit of the mid
705, recorded Krekel's "No More
Dough, Yakamo," which was pro
duced by Nick Lowe. Most recently,
"I Can't Help Myself" was covered
by Jason and the Scorchers, a
Nashville band that rides the crest
of the "new wave" of country
influenced rock 'n' roll.
Anne Atwell, publicist for Cat's
Cradle, attests to Krekel's talent. "A
lot of bands come in here with a lot
of publicity," she said, "but these
guys are terrific." Tndeed. not much
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word precedes this band, and they
continue to please crowd after
crowd, packed house or not. On a
previous date at Cat's Cradle, Atwell
said Krekel played before a crowd
of about 20 people, and he had them
dancing until the last song.
Krekel's music evades classifica
tion. It's hard-driving rock 'n' roll
with a pop edge, a little country
sprinkled in, and lined with ample
doses of rhythm and blues and classic
'60s rock. His music sounds like that
of such contemporary American
artists as Marshall Crenshaw as well
as classic rockers like Creedence
Clearwater Revival. The basic truth
about it all is that it's honest,
energetic, powerful music, upbeat
and made to dance to.
From the rockabilly rave up of "I
Cant Help Myself" to the smooth
country harmonies of "Transcenden
tal Meditation" to a rock 'n' roll
screamer like "Gotta Getta Way,"
Krekel never ceases to run out of
original ideas. Each songjs a fresh
approach to a genre that has had
its share of rip-off artists.
Krekel writes songs filled with lush
romanticism basic songs about
basic human issues. They are honest
songs about human relationships
and the joy of life, written with
devotion and played with fervor. The
Sluggers are a trio, with Krekel on
lead and rhythm guitar, Tom Comet
on bass and Willis Bailey on drums,
yet their sound comes out sounding
like a larger, stronger band, which
is a testament to their devotion to
performing well.
In an age when the norm is to pop
and rock to the latest electronic
bleeps and swooshes, Tim Krekel
and the Sluggers stand out as serious
devotees . to the cause of honest,
devoted rock 'n' roll.
Tim Krekel and the Sluggers will
perform Friday and Saturday at
Cat 's Cradle. Call 967-9053 for more
information.
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VEIYN
Hectic repertory schedule keeps
By FRANK BRUM
Staff Writer
John Feltch is the patriarch of an
outpost family in British colonial
Africa. He is also an effeminate London
homosexual, an executioner, a foolish
gentleman, and a vengeful creditor
named Slater. With five roles spread
across the three plays that compose
Play Makers Repertory Company's
month-long PlayFest 5, John Feltch
is just about everything but the person
he is in his normal day-to-day life:
doting husband, avid moviegoer, ama
teur chef. "It's crazy," he said, "but it's
exhilarating."
For the 26-year-old graduate student
and second-year PRC member, the
month of February has been like no
other. Appearing in all three of the
festival's productions, Feltch is on stage
six days a week, twice on Saturdays and
Sundays. He is one of only two actors
appearing in all three of the festivals
productions, and no actor is playing a
greater number of roles. As the plays
in the festival rotate on a daily basis,
John Feltch slips in and out of his roles
more frequently than the average person
changes his clothes.
"You get into really idiotic habits
when you're running like this," he said.
"When I go home, I'm like Mr. Middle
America. I turn on the TV and watch
any idiotic thing I see. It takes me a
long time to unwind. I find myself going
to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning and
getting up the next day and trying to
remember what show we're doing."
If he's very lucky, the show is Curse
of the Starving Class, in which he
appears only in the third act, to do a
brief, menacing turn as Slater. If he's
moderately lucky, the show is Measure
for Measure, in which his two roles
as Froth and Abhorson are small
ones. If the show is Cloud 9, however,
Feltch is in for a workout, playing
British frontiersman Clive in the first
act and lovelorn homosexual Edward
in the second.
"The problem with this kind of
circling repertory is that you only get
to do a certain show every three or four
days," he said. "In between, you're
doing another one or two other shows
and you kind of lose contact with it."
"The scary thing is that it's so
automatic that sometimes you find
yourself on stage and you're running
through the lines and they come almost
without your thinking about them
because it's by rote. So you have to go
over the script before the show just to
refresh the motivation of it, whatever
the feeling is that's behind the lines."
On this particular day, Feltch was
looking forward to two performances
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"Reading dynamically is
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WOOD READING
of Curse. He had just weathered two
Cloud shows on the previous day, and
the only time he had been able to find
for an interview was during the first act
of the first performance of Curse.
Sitting in a remote room backstage at
the Paul Green Theatre, the tall, lean,
dark-haired actor traced the route he
traveled to this busiest, most productive
moment in his acting career. The voices
of the actors onstage could be heard
through a closed door.
"In high school, I was rabid about
theatre too," he said. Feltch attended
a Jesuit school on the outskirts of
Boston, where he was born and raised.
"It was a jock school and since I wasn't
particularly athletic, I would hang out
in the theatre. We had three different
teachers there who did theatre all the
time. We just did theatre non-stop, and
that was a kind of haven from the
emotional brutality of the school."
Feltch continued acting as a dramatic
art major at Williams College. While
at Williams, he worked extensively with
Greg Boyd, then an assistant professor
at the college, now artistic director at
PRC. Although he almost lost contact
with both Boyd and acting after his
graduation from Williams, he caught up
with both here at UNC. .
"After I graduated, I was waiting'
tables in Boston for three years," Feltch
said. "I did classes and auditions, most
of which didn't work out. I gave up
the theatre for a year. I was just busy
making money and enjoying myself.
Then Greg called."
Boyd had set up PRC, and he wanted
Feltch to be a part of it. Feltch liked
the idea. He had enjoyed working with
Boyd before. He missed the theatre and
didn't want to do what many of his
friends had done: move to New York
and compete with the thousands of
actors there for bit parts. So he packed
his bags and headed south.
"It worked out beautifully," Feltch
said. "I'm living well down here and I'm
working all the time." In his first year
with PRC, Feltch appeared in As You
Like It, The Hostage, and Dracula: A
Musical Nightmare. Last semester, he
had major roles in both Ring Around
the Moon and Our Town.
Moroever, Feltch loves Chapel Hill
and the life he leads here. He lives at
the Oaks with his wife, Mitzi Jokich,
a professional artist he met and married
in Boston. In less hectic times, they
frequent films, experiment in the
kitchen and lead what Feltch described
as a fairly social life. Concerned at first
about living in an area less cosmopol
itan than their native Boston, they now
wonder whether they would ever return.
"It's so peaceful here and so easy
living, economically and otherwise,"
, .
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John Feltch will be performing
Feltch said. "I've gotten used to it. Now
when I go to New York I'm just
completely freaked out."
In fact, Feltch's immediate ambitions
are not those usually voiced by a young
actor Broadway shows, Hollywood
films but rather involve a preserva
tion of his current lifestyle. "I'd love to
Watch for
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actor busy
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in five roles in three PRC plays.
do film work someday but I think
theatre is a terrific base," Feltch said.
"I hope when I get out of here I work
in a similar setup a smallish, regional
repertory theatre where you can do a
variety of roles, where you're living in
a community, where you have a decent
life. It's a much more civilized way of
doing it."
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