Barrelhouse to Open for Raging Arb & Redheads

They won’t give it up, but they won’t go away, either. After maybe half a dozen gigs last year, Ventura legends Raging Arb & the Redheads, quite rested up, will be back with their first gig of 1998 Friday night at Nicholby’s in Ventura. It might not be a bad idea to show up in a timely manner to check out the openers, Barrelhouse, who also rock.

Barrelhouse is six guys doing roots rock. Harlis Sweetwater sings, Leonard Jones plays bass, Jack Benson plays sax, Ken Shaw plays trumpet, Calhoun B. Tibbs plays guitar and Cleotis Jackson is the drummer. Barrelhouse is a dance band from Orange County, but it doesn’t know any ska songs. Sweetwater isn’t nearly as cute as Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, but he does have an explanation for the band’s success.

“Must be the music. We seem to fit in with whatever kind of music we’re coupled with--punk, rockabilly, blues, whatever; and Raging Arb is the first band we’ve actually liked and gotten along with,” he said. “People seem to just dig the groove of our music, get into it and have a good time.”

Sweetwater and Jones were in a band called Crawdaddy that played old Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes plus a couple of originals, but in 1994 they formed Barrelhouse to play music they liked better.

“I’d say we play soul music. We have that Volt/Stax soul thing going, part blues and part rock,” said Sweetwater. “We were influenced by bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and also Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding.”

Sweetwater is easy to spot--he sports a goatee and wears a beat-up hat that looks as if it survived a twister, the Terminator and the Titanic.

“It’s my good-luck hat. I’ve had it a long time, but I got it from somebody else who had it before that, so it’s been around. My sister hates that hat. She says it’s like my security blanket, like Linus in Peanuts. She tried to buy me a new one, but I wouldn’t go for it.”

* Raging Arb & the Redheads and Barrelhouse at Nicholby’s, 404 E. Main St., Ventura, Friday, 9 p.m. $6. (805) 653-2320.

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Folk singer Mike Power will headline a gig he organized to benefit the homeless Friday night at the Poinsettia Pavilion in Ventura.

Power has recorded 15 albums, “Fire in the Wind” his latest. * Mike Power, Cole Hanson, Johnny D, Tribal Me, Up Past Ten and others at Poinsettia Pavilion, 3451 Foothill Road, Ventura, Friday, 7:30 p.m. $5. (805) 641-1234.

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Singer-songwriter Don Parker will play a hometown gig Saturday night at Borders in Thousand Oaks.

There will be an onstage Easter egg hunt for kids of all ages.

Parker is an ingratiating, totally unpretentious folkie who writes witty songs.

* Don Parker at Borders in Thousand Oaks, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 8 p.m. Free. (805) 497-8159.

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Meanwhile, there’s plenty happening up the coast in Santa Barbara this week. Roger Hodgson, former guitar player and songwriter for ‘70s supergroup Supertramp, will play Friday night at the Coach House. To find out more, call (805) 962-8877.

And finally, Grammy Award winner Shawn Colvin will headline this month’s Sings Like Hell series concert Wednesday night at the Lobero Theatre. Anna Egge will open. To find out more, call (805) 963-0761.