thedailytimes.com : Your 24/7 news source

There may not be as much get up and go in the old gas tank as there used to be, but rest assured -- Bonepony circa 2010 more than makes up for it with enthusiasm and experience.

For almost 20 years now, the Nashville trio, led by vocalist Scott Johnson, has been bringing its unique brand of "stomp rock" to the masses, and at this point in the group's career, the home fires are often more appealing than the call of the open road. But when the band takes center stage, as it'll do this weekend at "The Shed" at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson in Maryville, any weariness Johnson and his bandmates might feel is eclipsed by the communal joy of the music.

"At 4 a.m. at a truckstop when it's a who's-gonna-drive kind of deal, it does get old," Johnson told The Daily Times this week. "These day, we don't tour as much as we used to. We still go out for a couple of weeks to Colorado and Utah and California, and we usually do a week up into New York and Vermont, but where we used to stretch it out and stay out three or four weeks at a time, now we just turn around and drive home when we're through playing.

"Our kids need us, and that's so much a part of who we are as fathers and family men. To be gone for that long and come home and having it seem like my little girl has changed so much, it feels like it's slipping away. But what never gets old is playing music. I love these guys, and we all really are inspired every night. It's always new and fresh and different, and the music is always exciting to me."

From the outset, Bonepony strived to do something different. The group first formed in the early 1990s in Nashville, and although Johnson is the sole remaining original member, he's kept Bonepony going through various incarnations. At one time, the band was signed to Capitol Records, which released the phenomenal "Stomp Revival" before giving the band the shaft.

Not to be dissuaded, Johnson assembled new members, including current multi-instrumentalist Nick Nguyen, and released other material -- the studio albums "Traveler's Companion," which saw the song "Mountainside" picked up for a Dodge truck commercial, and "Jubilee"; the rarities collection "Rare Cuts"; the live album "Funhouse"; and the combination live CD/DVD "Celebration Highway." Bonepony's most recent studio album, "Feeling It," landed in the No. 1 spot on XM Satellite Radio's X Country charts, a monumental accomplishment for a band without a label or tour support.

Through it all, the band built a grassroots following across the nation, with Bonepony fans cropping up in pockets everywhere from Oregon to Maine and all places in between. With Nguyen on fiddle, viola, acoustic guitar and mandolin and newest member Kenny Wright on mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar and drums, the band can go full-on roots-rock, with Nguyen working the bass pedal and Johnson howling out greasy, Southern-fried bluesy lyrics; or they can strip down, sit down and mic their boots (for that trademark "stomp shoe" sound, in which the percussion is played by banging their feet on stage) and get a little more mellow.

"As time goes on, some of the arrangements have really, really changed from the studio versions," Johnson said. "Nick's been dragging out a pedal steel guitar once in a while, and sometimes we'll take a song and try it out as a blues song with pedal steel rather than a dobro or fiddle. It keeps things new and fresh and just allows the music to evolve."

With observational lyrics that sway between inspiration and sly humor, Johnson takes on the role of a big-tent revivalist preacher, alternating between friendly banter between songs and otherworldly howls as the beat turns tribal and all three musicians are unloading everything they have into their instruments. Concerts become more than just music events; they become celebrations -- of life and love and fellowship.


Which is why fans feel so possessive of the band that, during its down time, they'll heckle Johnson for not working as hard as they believe he should be on a new CD, which Bonepony plans to deliver sometime during the first third of 2010.

"I'll post something online about enjoying a day at the lake with my daughter, and someone will inevitably ask, 'Why aren't you working on the new record?'" he said with a laugh. "But we have been, tracking some here in town at some real studios and doing some bedroom recordings with some friends of ours. Plus, we've been constructing some stuff on the road. We played one club that put us up in a big old condominium that had this metal spiral staircase in it, and we just started beating on that one day.

"We thought it sounded great, so we set up some microphones and captured us beating on it, then took it back to the studio and worked it into a track. With those kinds of ideas, it's taking us a little longer to record this time than on previous CDs. I've really liked our previous albums, but we've always felt a little under the gun. With this one, we wanted too take more time and be more exploratory."

The only dilemma now, he added, is coming up with a title. At one point, he jokingly suggested "Too Dumb to Quit," given the band's perseverance and determination. Despite such self-deprecation, however, there's no talk of giving up the ghost any time soon. In fact, the guys are headed to Cozumel, Mexico on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" cruise later this month, and after that comes a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where the guys will lobby for the inclusion of Bonepony music into a feature film.

But first comes a more relaxed performance on Saturday night at "The Shed." It's the first of the venue's three-concert "Unplugged" series, and according to Johnson, there's no better place to enjoy an intimate performance.

"It's one of my favorite venues and really is one of the coolest venues we play nationwide," he said. "They bring in some of the coolest artists out there, and every time we play, we get the feeling that the fans really revere the musicians -- and the performances are fantastic because of that.

"A lot of places want to know how much beer you can help sell and how many (butts) you can put in the seats. It's not like that at 'The Shed.' We feel special and valued there, so hopefully this weekend we can break it down, bring out the chairs and it'll hopefully have a front-porch vibe to it with all of our friends invited."