In The Hood: August
From August 2006
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The Palms Playhouse
Roots Music
By Amy Burgstahler
It’s just minutes into the show at the Palms Playhouse and already the floor is packed. Dancers whirl and spirits soar to the contagious rhythm of Cajun band BeauSoleil with Michael Doucet.
An hour earlier, in the quiet emptiness of this same historic Winters Opera House, owner-operator Dave Fleming, 47, had searched for the right words to describe what unifies the Palms’ eclectic mix of offerings, from R&B and bluegrass to folk and country. Now, the Louisiana-inspired zydeco radiating from stage was proving his point perfectly.
According to Fleming, the Palms owes its 30-year survival to community support, indeed, but ultimately to the power of music that dates back decades earlier.
“A lot of the music we do really is rooted in the pre-TV era,” he notes, “when people really knew how to sing, form a band, arrange a song and compose music for a strong effect without amplifiers that simply blow your head off. It’s stuff that really works at a human level, that feels straight-ahead, real and honest, whatever the genre. It just moves you.”
A Living Tradition
Continued...
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