Rev. Billy C. Wirtz: The Best of the Wirtz: 15
Years on the Road with a 77" Pianist
(Hightone Records HCD8128 CD. Rev. Billy C.
Wirtz, Jim Devito, prods.; Jim Devito, eng. ADD.)
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 "Some
folks go to college /
And others take dope to get their kicks /
Me, I learned ever'thing in life from watching Elvis flicks /
If I was the President, I wouldn't need no help at all /
Just give me my peanutbutter'n'nanner sandwich and I'd give ol' Ann Margeret a call /
a hunka hunka hunka hunka . . ."
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, "WWED (What would Elvis
Do?)"
I don't know why it is, but comedy/music mixtures don't get
much respect. True, sometimes it's pretty sophomoric stuff (pace Weird Al
Yankovic), but at its best, it's a damned hard trick to pull off a truly good funny tune.
Get it right -- like Tom Lehrer did -- and you're set for the ages.
No one would mistake the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz for Noel
Coward, but he's one of the handful of contemporary musicians who can bring down the house
with both his piano chops and his hilarious singing/songwriting. The Best of the
Wirtz is a collection of his most requested songs, rare performance tapes, and even a
few new numbers. If you haven't run across the Rev. before now, this disc serves as a
superb introduction to the tall, tattooed boogie-woogie wild man.
Wirtz was born in South Carolina and grew up in Washington
DC, which accounts for his comfort with country, blues and soul -- but he credits his true
musical education to Sunnyland Slim, the famous blues and barrelhouse pianist he met while
working as a special education teacher in 1979. Wirtz quit his day job and traveled to
Chicago with Slim, sharing his apartment and getting his true musical education in the
local clubs and hanging out with Slim's peers.
In 1982, Wirtz hit the road as a solo artist, working the
mid-Atlantic club circuit with his incendiary combination of blues, boogie-woogie,
hard-country and rockabilly. To fully appreciate Wirtz, you need to see him in a club
environment, where he combines between-song patter with high-energy piano playing. He's a
master at recruiting the audience into participating in his antics; as a result, audiences
end up wrapped around his little finger -- which probably makes his demonic pianism even
harder, but there you go.
Part Jimmy Swaggert, part Jerry Lee Lewis, part Elvis, part
Red Sovine, Wirtz's act veers across the musical landscape, but always at a full gallop.
Best of the Wirtz has amazing sound for a live album
culled from the scraps and odd corners of Wirtz' career. It's lively and in-your-face, but
real as all get out. This isn't a soundstaging demonstration classic, but for pace and
dynamics, it's hard to beat.
And then there are the songs. Wirtz opens with "What I
Used to Do All Night," a country blues that has the good Rev complaining "I got
hairs growing places there weren't none before / The places that it's been, well it ain't
there no more / Time marches on, yeah brother you know that it's true / What I used to do
all night now takes me all night to do..."
"Roberta" was Wirtz's first "hit." It's
an odd little story-song that's so popular in some parts of the country that radio
stations have designated days on which they'll accept requests for it. Speaking at ninety
miles an hour, Wirtz describes his house, his second and third wives, his interior décor
("the black velvet painting of Jesus, Elvis, and John Wayne walking together through
eternity, watched over by Hank, Sr . . ."), ending with a smothered love song, sung
to a woman who, when walking away from him, resembles "two great big watermelons
hooked up in time to the pacemaker of destiny playing the drum break to
'Innagaddadavita.'"
My favorite, however, is "The Visitor," where
Wirtz channels Red Sovine and tells the tale of a visit to a dying truckstop waitress
whose only regret is that she never met the King.
"'Are you talking about Jesus?' / 'Oh no, bless my
soul, I'm talking about the boy from Memphis / the King of rock'n'roll . . .'" One
thing leads to another, as it must in any Red Sovine song (and I won't reveal the
outcome), but it would take a harder heart than mine not to tear up just a little at the
ending. "The Visitor" will be a feature of many a party-mix in my future.
All in all, Wirtz is a hoot and a joy. If you find yourself
taking this hobby too seriously, he's a guaranteed tonic for what ails ya.
Repeat when necessary.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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