A Swingin’ Success

“If you dance with the gods, they’ll lead you to paradise.”

--Frank Lovejoy in the movie, “Shack Out on 101”

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Dancing clearly will be a viable option when the eight guys in Big Bad Voodoo Daddy return home for their big-label debut CD-release party Saturday night at the Ventura Theatre. Working the local angle to the max, Johnny Oxnard & the Ranch Hands will open the all-ages gig at 9 p.m.

Over the last decade, Ventura has had its share of great local bands, including Raging Arb & the Redheads, the Mudheads, the I-Rails, J.D.’s Last Ride and Lion I’s, to name a few. Of course, none of those ever got signed. But then, maybe none worked as hard as Voodoo Daddy, according to one who knows, the Big Bad Voodude himself, singer-songwriter-guitarist Scotty Morris.

“Nobody gets signed out of Ventura? We got signed out of Ventura. Maybe those other bands didn’t put out the effort it takes. We went out on the road and sold 30,000 CDs from the back of a van.”

Voodoo Daddy got its start at Nicholby’s in Ventura; the band routinely packed the place. After hitting the road, the group played locally less frequently. The Ventura Theatre, which holds more than 1,000 people, is the logical spot for a homecoming.

Voodoo Daddy has outgrown but not forgotten Nick Taylor’s venue.

“Nick has been very good to us from the very beginning,” Morris said. “He gave us a gig every other week. We did two sold-out shows with B.B. King at the Ventura Theatre for New Year’s Eve before last (1996) for the old regime, and they gave us $1,000 and basically stiffed us. We swore never to play there again until the ownership changed. Now it has changed, plus, we wanted to do an all-ages show.”

How did these guys get so popular? In case you haven’t noticed, swing dancing has taken off from sea to shining sea. There is scarcely a night when there is not a swing dance or a swing-dance lesson going on somewhere. Much like Civil War reenactors, swing dancers dress up but without the guns. They are increasing exponentially.

“It’s really growing all across the country. We’ve been in about half of the states, and people are turning out in a big way, and about half of them come dressed up. We dressed up for our very first gig, which was about five years ago. We all have a lot of suits now.”

Voodoo Daddy not only left Ventura for gigs all over California but landed a big-time Wednesday-night gig when they replaced Royal Crown Revue at the Derby in Los Feliz, a venue at the epicenter of the swing thing.

“We did that gig for about 2 1/2 years, and it was the best thing for us. After about six months, we started treating Wednesday like our Monday. We’d play there, then hit the road and play somewhere else on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was great because we were always playing and doing new songs every week.”

Just by being in Los Angeles where every night is entertainment night, the band made contacts that led to appearances on television shows, movie premieres, at Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s New Year’s Eve party and even a show at the Getty Center. The break that changed everything for the band was a role in a movie written by a friend they met at the Derby.

“Basically, we were in a position where we could pick and choose the deal we wanted. The soundtrack for the movie ‘Swingers’ helped us immensely. It opened a lot of doors for us so that people could see what we were all about, and see what we were doing. Then we met Brad Benedict, the right guy from Capitol, and it’s been a match made in heaven. We could’ve picked anybody, because we were approached by every label.”

After two independent releases, the self-titled new one is set to hit the stores this week. The album is on Coolsville Records, a Capitol alias. The music is retro and not retro because the band owes as much to (punk band) Black Flag as it does to Cab Calloway. Not surprisingly, Morris likes the record.

“It’s a killer. It’s 12 originals with one cover, ‘Minnie the Moocher.’ We recorded it just like we would a live show, over the course of a few weeks. It’s recorded and arranged better than anything we’ve ever done, and the band is just so much better and tighter than ever. But we’ve still got the same sound--original swing songs with a ‘90s edge.”

A veteran of lots of bands, Morris is a man with a mission and a creative wardrobe. Leading a band, he says, is a lot different from just being in one.

“It’s a great privilege. We still have all the original members in the band, and we’re all the best of friends. We all have the same vision and they all trust me. We held our ground, and we didn’t make a deal just to make a deal. If we’d signed two years ago, we wouldn’t have gotten the deal we did this time.”

* Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Johnny Oxnard & the Ranch Hands at the Ventura Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St. Sat., 9 p.m. All ages. $15. (805) 653-0721.

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Harvey Reid, a master of all things stringed, will open musical festivities at the Ash Street Gardens with a Saturday-night concert. Critics have used up just about all the good adjectives in describing Reid’s 11 solo releases on his own Woodpecker Records. His vast repertoire includes acoustic folk, blues, country, bluegrass, ragtime, Celtic and classical. Either Reid is plagued by indecision or is very good. They don’t call him “The Master Minstrel” for nothing.

* Harvey Reid at Ash Street Gardens, the corner of Ash Street and Main Street, Ventura. $12. (805) 648-3284.

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And finally, Sunday night at the Ventura Theatre is ska night, a genre of music that is rapidly becoming the soundtrack for Southern California. This show will feature the Skatalites, Mourning Wood, Let’s Go Bowling and the greatest local ska band, the Upbeat, all the way from Carpinteria.

This show should entice fully as many dancers as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, although they don’t spend nearly as much on clothes.

* Ska night at the Ventura Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St. Sunday, 9 p.m. $15. (805) 653-0721.