THE MUSIC

Let’s not forget what rockabilly is about.

Good and clean rock ’n’ roll with jangling guitars, toe-tapping rhythm and swooningly gutteral voices.

“To understand it, you have to understand the history,” says Dan Kostelny, aka The Hepkat, one of the personalities on KKFI’s “Rockabilly Mood Swing” program.

Here’s the quick-and-dirty version:

The style emerged in the early 1950s as a convergence of primarily rock ’n’ roll and “hillbilly” (read: country music), with influences of boogie-woogie, Western swing and rhythm and blues. It lost favor in the ’60s, re-emerged in the late ’70s and continues to enjoy a solid following as modern-day incarnations preserve and protect the genre like a hot-rodder with a ’51 Chevy.

“American rockabilly today has a punk influence,” Kostelny says. “That added a little extra kickass to it.”

On the radio

Catch Lynne G., The Hepkat and Toodles on “Rockabilly Mood Swing” from 5 to 7 p.m. Fridays.

Their program airs on KKFI 90.1 FM, an independent noncommercial radio station.

The local rockabilly scene succeeds “because the music is so good and so basic,” says Dan Kostelny, aka The Hepkat, who has been on the show for five years.

Some of the program’s mainstays: Gene Vincent, Benny Joy, Johnny Burnette, Charlie Feathers and local act The Rumblejetts.

It's "Hepkat" you got it right the first time.. missed it the second.

Posted 23 weeks ago by spacecowboyian

It's "Hepkat" you got it right the first time.. missed it the second.

Posted 23 weeks ago by spacecowboyian