The Ozark Mountain Daredevils started playing together 45 years ago in Springfield, Missouri, but Kansas City has always been the band’s secondary base.
3 reasons we're listening to the Ozark Mountain Daredevils this week:
1. On Friday, the Daredevils play a concert with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that's a benefit for the Medicine Cabinet, a charity that provides "short-term emergency medical assistance for those in need in the metropolitan Kansas City area."
2. The band’s two big hits — “If You Wanna Get to Heaven” (1973) and “Jackie Blue” (1974) — don’t reflect its affinity for the traditional folk music of the Ozarks, as demonstrated by the wacky “Chicken Train,” from the band’s self-titled 1973 debut album.
3. A staple of the band’s live shows, “Chicken Train” features an “Ozark mountain mouth-bow” and a lyrical reference to a “laser beam in my dream.” It occurs to us that “Chicken Train” sounds like a psychedelic version of the Branson based novelty act the Baldknobbers.
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are guests of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 7:30 p.m., Friday, February 17 at the Uptown Theater, 3700 Broadway, Kansas City, Missouri, 64111; 816-753-8665.
Bill Brownlee’s writing appears weekly in The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine. He blogs about Kansas City’s jazz scene at Plastic Sax.
