Reckless Kelly Brings Raucous Country-Rock to Little Rock's Rev Room

by Julian Spivey

Julian Spivey Photo

Reckless Kelly has been a tried and true rock-country touring band for around a quarter of a century now and they have the bar band atmosphere down pat. I’ve been wanting to see them for a while now, but after their strong 2020 double album American Jackpot/American Girls I knew now was the time to strike, especially when they came to my favorite music venue The Revolution Room in Little Rock on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The band opened the show a bit after 9 p.m. with a fantastic performance of “Lost Inside the Groove” from their most recent album. Other favorite performances from that album during the night included my personal favorite track “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You All Night,” as well as the Tom Petty tribute “Tom Was a Friend of Mine,” which was followed by a rocking cover of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ classic “Listen to Her Heart.”

The crowd of Reckless Kelly loyalists was eating out of the group’s palm all evening long, belting the lyrics to all of their songs and being in an all-around terrific mood. The Rev Room always makes for one of my favorite concert atmospheres. Small venues allow for the true music lovers among us to feel the music and not have to deal with the bullshit of bigger venues, which sometimes cater more to a party atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, rocking all night to Reckless Kelly is a party in itself, but mostly without asshole concertgoers included among the bunch.

There were fan-favorites sprinkled all through the Reckless Kelly set on Thursday night, including “Seven Nights in Eire” and “Wicked Twisted Road,” off their 2005 album Wicked Twisted Road, songs that sound just as fresh nearly two decades later. Speaking of decades later, being somewhat of a new Reckless Kelly fan I hadn’t realized their first album Millican came out all the way back in 1998. Even the songs from their debut they performed like “Back Around” and “I Still Do” sound as if they could’ve been on the band’s latest album. Reckless Kelly evidently doesn’t get old.

Petty’s “Listen to Her Heart” wasn’t the group’s only great cover on the evening. The band did an absolutely fantastic take on Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” which frontman Willy Braun said was “the greatest song ever written about redheads and motorcycles.” I concur.

Willy’s brother and co-founder of the band Cody Braun took over lead vocals on the rip-roaring “Wild Western Windblown Band,” which they debuted on their Live at Stubbs album in 2000. Cody would spend the bulk of the night absolutely killing it on fiddle and mandolin and provided backing vocals for brother Willy.

The rest of the band was really tight featuring Joe Miller on bass, Jay Nazz on drums and a great pedal steel player whose name I, unfortunately, can’t find anywhere.

Among the other great performances from Thursday’s show at the Rev included “Ragged As the Road,” off 2008’s Bulletproof, “Nobody’s Girl,” off 2003’s Under the Table and Above the Sun and “Good Luck & True Love,” off their 2011 album of the same name.

A couple of the finest tracks on the group’s latest album, “I Only See You with My Eyes Closed” and “Mona” featured in the group’s encore, with “Vancouver,” a crowd favorite off Under the Table and Above the Sun featuring the line “when my luck ran out/I was sitting on a concrete block in Little Rock” drawing grand applause, sandwiched in between.

Reckless Kelly put on a fantastic show, and I’m thrilled I finally got the chance to see them live and will be looking forward to their next Rev Room trip in the future.