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| Rugged Road |
Quick- name Robben Ford’s biggest hit. All right, unfair
question unless you’re a guitar freak who has followed Ford’s trailblazing
career through the band L.A. Express or collaborations with Miles Davis and Joni
Mitchell (and Kiss!), or his own sophisticated blues albums.
Which makes Ford an unlikely source of material for band
playing the local circuit. But that’s how Rugged Road started out six years ago.
Guitarist Mike Young loved Ford’s melodies and phrasings and pulled together a
band to air Ford's jazzy blues in area clubs and bars. Eventually Rugged Road broadened its repertoire, but
still prefers to sidestep the norm.
“I’m always looking for the ‘other hits’ of the ’70s,”
Young says. “We’ll do Steve Miller songs, but not ‘Fly Like an
Eagle.’ We’ll do ‘True Fine Love.’ And if you like Steve Miller, you’ll know
that song. With a lot of classic rock, people know the albums as well as the hits.”
Young says he keeps pen and pad nearby when listening to
satellite radio stations that favor popular artists’ deeper cuts; hence with Rugged Road you’re
going to get Steve Ray Vaughan’s “Tightrope” rather than “Pride and Joy”
“‘Tightrope’ is hard, but we have a lead guitar player who
can pull it off,” Young says.
That would be Mike Jiencke joining Young on guitars. Rugged Road also
includes keyboard player Rick Ottman, bassist Paul Morrell, and drummer Herdi
Xha.
The band played after last season’s Great Race and is coming
back Friday for a show in the Coppertop starting at 8 p.m.
Ford’s stamp on Rugged
Road goes beyond supplying choice tunes; Rugged Road will also cover songs that Ford has covered.
“He did a great arrangement of ‘Peace Love and
Understanding.’ Most people know the Elvis Costello version, but we’ll play
Robben’s,” Young says.
Of course they will.
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