Photos and Words by LUIS MORENO
Reverend Horton Heat, AKA Jim “Reverend Horton” Heath, stepped on stage for a solo show at The Venice West and everyone stopped what they were doing to applaud and welcome him. The stage seemed rather lonely with only one stool and a mic. But the Reverend’s presence soon filled the space.
Reverend Horton Heat is from Texas, he writes about Texas, and he’s a storytelling Texan. I was driving up the infamous 405 freeway here in Los Angeles and honestly didn’t know what to expect from The Rev in a solo show. I’d seen him over the years, and it was always a good time. I tried contemplating how he would convert his Rockabilly, ’50s-flavored country style with a hint of jazz into a one-man show.
Well as it turns out, The Rev is more than just a fiery brand. The Rev mixed new versions of Reverend Horton Heat classics with stories of when he was a child playing with his two toy six-shooter guns and meeting the president of the United States LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson). That story led into a 1965 country dance hall song by Ernest Tubb, “Waltz Across Texas,” which The Rev delivered with simplicity.
The stories continued all night in between songs and applause. The Rev even sang his own version of famous television show theme songs. This is where his jazz flavor kicked in by performing “Harlem Nocturne” a jazz standard written by Hagen & Rogers in 1939. And decades later in the 1980s would be the theme song to a detective TV show called Mike Hammer. The Rev even performed a song by Henry Mancini.
The Reverend continued charming with the crowd by serenading a Spanish-style song “In Your Wildest Dreams,” where the crowd joined and finished with a “cha-cha-cha” ending. He kept the crowd laughing with tales about Willie Nelson and Carl Perkins’ experiences that were funny and enlightening.
Reverend Horton Heat ended the evening with what he said is the “laziest way to end a song,” and he FADED out. But great feelings from the evening won’t fade away.
