Okay all you big whinnie thick heads that think you are above coming to Gary’s. You just don’t know what you’re missing. I’d call you cowards, but then I would insult my dear friends The Cowards. You just keep to your safe little cover bands while the rest of us are learning how to dance a new step that we don’t know what to call. We could call it Shaved Back. Nah better not that would force lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Ned Hill to have to shave all the time. Occasionally I have to pee in that bathroom and I would rather not deal with Ned’s back hair all the time.

The Cowards are a four piece band pushing out of Nashville. Ned, Bill, Jeff, and Elliot are four fun-loving yet somewhat cynical men with an idea to succeed at their own price. Occasionally they don’t even agree among themselves. Cynics alike, the whole lot of ‘em are. There is no particular sound you can pick up and spell out to describe The Cowards.

Songs like “Just in Time”, which is layered with sounds in such a way that allows a listener to pick out each of the instrument lines. The melody is mysterious yet very alluring. From there the band will jump into a sound that is reminiscent of that old Charlie Daniels song about him getting a flat somewhere in Mississippi or was it Arkansas? Any way “We Just Wanna Get Layed”, is a fun, gotta dance to song. It’s cousin the ever popular “Trailer Trash” is a happy tune with that very cynical characteristic coming out in the words sung in harmony by Elliot Housier and Jeff Davis. To add to that image of laughing cynics and critics there is the wonderful melody of “Hanging Out in Wal-Mart”. Drive-Drive…Smack-Smack…Space(Breath)…Ditty-Ditty…Stop(Gasp)…Now Spin. The lyrics are just as fun , but I’m still groovin’ on the melody.

But my favorite is “Lover in the Window”. I wrote the word “Munster Funk” in the big black book. No, it’s not because Ned is as tall as Herman Munster. It’s because the song is that groovy. It’s touches something inside your rock-n-roll heart like “LOUIE-LOUIE” or something from the Rascals or Spencer-Davis or Lovin’ Spoonful. Yeah there is definitely some Buddy Holly love in both Elliot Housier, lead guitarist, and Bill Waldron, drummer. Which brings up the point of drum-aerobics. Bill Waldron, if asked to, could bang, twang, beat, spack, pound, and swish on a drum set 24 hours a day without missing a beat. He has this much energy. Energy, The Cowards definitely have. And that is something quite a few locals have moved away from or thought was not necessary. Ned’s pants might be about to fall off, but at least he’s still movin’ and jumpin’ and hollerin’. The next time The Cowards are in town forget about your hormonal needs and straighten your spine out so you can come out and dance with us. Unless your name is Mike, then stay home. The only Cowards allowed are the folks in the band.