High Octane Rock 'n Roll With a
Sense of Humour

Tom Hawthorn - The Globe and Mail


The hillbilly trio known as Cousin Harley travels Canada, making music fans happy.


The pale ale is flowing freely at the waterfront beer tent, even though the noon sun is barely over the yardarm. A woman in spray-on leather pants and a teeny leather bikini top, her eyes covered by sunglasses, whoops in approval, a plastic cup of beer in each hand.


At this weekend Blues Bash, the partying promises a hangover as raucous as the celebration. On stage, a hillbilly trio - drums, guitar, stand-up bass - offers mountain music to the 400 folks gathered at Victoria's Inner Harbour.


The band known as Cousin Harley plays a high-octane, hot-rod style of rockabilly with a generous dollop of humour: one ballad merges into "Stairway to Heaven", drawing appreciative laughs. In an age of rap and hip-hop, of pop-tarts and boy bands, and country tunes so generic as to be bland, three formally trained musicians are trying to make a living playing Hank Williams tunes.


"Everything these days is so overproduced" argues Pete Turland, the stylish slap-bass player who was born in Northampton, England. "Hank Williams singing "Your Cheatin' Heart" is as honest as the Sex Pistols singing "Anarchy in the UK"."


"This is genuine. You can't fake it." adds Jesse Cahill, a diehard hockey fan whose frantic drumming looks like a Wayne Maki - Ted Green stick-swinging duel. All three members of Cousin Harley studied music in school. "There's so many rules in classical music," says lead singer and guitarist Paul Pigat, "and there's no rules in this stuff."


The trio members also play jazz in various trios and combos. But when they dress up in Western shirts, they become rockabilly rebels. After all, rockabilly was the punk rock of the Fifties. "Roadhouse music," Mr. Pigat calls it. "We play a lot of rooms in the middle of the Island. A lot of loggers and truckers and fishermen. They don't really know this music. They like the band but they don't really have anything to hang on to, any reference point. So, if you throw in a little Hendrix, a little Stones, you get them on your side. The clients are good, honest, hard-working people." he adds, fishing another smoke from a battered Players tin cigarette holder. "Our music is rootsy, ballsy and that's the way they lead their lives."


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