Cattle Cruisers

If you like country with an edge, Friday's the time to giddy up and mosey on over to Docksider. Happy hour becomes outlaw hour when the Cattle Cruisers play originals, as well as a healthy shot of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Steve Earle, among others.

Band leader Cactus Cate -- who was known as Rick DiBello in his former rock-and-roll life -- says the band pays tribute to the traditional spirit of country. Or does it?

"The funny thing is, we think we're traditional. And apparently, we're not,"Cate said with a laugh. "I don't know where the translation comes in between our brains and the audience. We absolutely think we're doing it traditional style, and they think it's insane the way we do it. I can't explain it, and I won't brother trying."

This much is true: Cattle Cruisers predate the alt-country scene that rode in via bands such as Uncle Tupelo and Whiskeytown. DiBello -- who had played in a gazillion Erie rock and punk bands, including the Famous Clowns -- discovered country the right way. He found Hank.

"Somewhere around 1988, I started listening to Hank Sr. and some old Johnny Cash. It was just after the time Dwight Yoakam started becoming popular. I was blown away by Hank Sr."

DiBello figured putting together a country band would be a breeze. But he was wrong.

"When we started, we were horrible," he said. "We had no idea how to play country. I was yelling, not singing, and those three chords? Man, they're hypnotic, but you never know which one's supposed to come up next. They're only three chords, but we were always going to the wrong chord.

"We did the Norb's shows Saturday afternoons in the winter for years, and that honed us into some respectable outfit."

DiBello later became music director for the Roadhouse Theatre, including "Always ... Patsy Cline." For a time, he tried to inject some country into his rock bands, such as Famous Clowns. But that didn't quite work. These days, he's content with Cattle Cruisers, who'll celebrate their 17th anniversary later this winter. He also still plays in Torn Curtain.

Cate talked about Cattle Cruisers with Showcase.

HOME BASE Erie.

BAND MEMBERS Cactus Cate, guitar, vocals; Smith and Wesson, bass; Medicine Man, pedal steel; Quick Draw, drums.

INSPIRATION The Cattle Cruisers' concept evolved from Cate's vivid imagination.

"It came from a construction worker I knew back in 1985, and I developed this scenario around him," Cate said. "It was like a little movie, and I named it 'Amish Cowboy Cal and the Cattle Cruisers.' That was like his gang. He had this van, with the windshield out of it, and it was pulled by four horses. And he had this magic whip, and like, aliens would come down and try to get to Earth, and he'd stick his head out of the windshield and crack it, and the spaceship would get destroyed."

Not surprisingly, the movie never got made. But when DiBello started a country band a couple years later, he remembered Amish Cowboy Cal and the Cattle Cruisers. "I thought it was hilarious, so I shortened it to Cattle Cruisers."

THE SET LIST" About 30 percent is original music, and the rest is covers -- usually from the '50s and '60s," Cate said. "Like Hank Sr., Johnny Cash, Webb Pierce. We're doing the theme to the 'Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."Galveston' by Glenn Campbell is a new one we put together. And Wayne Hancock, who's a modern guy but sounds old, like Earnest Tubb."

Cattle Cruisers also usually open most shows with "Copperhead Road"by Steve Earle.

AUDIENCE FAVORITE" The perennial favorite is our hillbilly version of 'Whole Lotta Love,'" Cate said. "In a rock band, you tended to have a principal where you'd take a pop tune or something and completely rearrange it so it's hard rock and doesn't make any sense. It can take people a while to figure out what tune it is. 'Oh ... Barry Manilow?' It's the same thing, only in reverse with country. Any hard-rock tune can be made into a country tune. It's hilarious."

FIRST CONCERT YOU EVER SAW" Yeah, Poco at Gannon. Maybe it was a prelude to the Cattle Cruisers," Cate said.

LAST GOOD CONCERT YOU SAW" November of 1975, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band at Music Hall in Cleveland," he said.

Two years later, Cate caught Iggy Pop and a mysterious guest band mate during "The Idiot" tour in Cleveland.

"All of a sudden this guy comes out with two big goons on either side and sits down at the keyboards. It didn't dawn on me until three tunes in, and he started singing background vocals. 'Holy -- ! That's Bowie!"

FIRST RECORD It was a Beatles'45, the one with 'I Should Have Known Better' as the B-side,'" said Cate. The A-side was "A Hard Day's Night."

DESERT-ISLAND CDS "Cool Quiet Bossa Nova" by Steve Allen. "Hank Williams' Greatest Hits,""Machine Head" by Deep Purple, "Rain Dogs" by Tom Waits, "Twin Peaks"soundtrack.

CDS Not yet.

WEB SITE www.dam-network.com/music/cattlecruisers

UPCOMING GIGS Friday from 5-8 p.m. at Docksider, 1015 State St.
Nov. 10-13 for Raise the Roof benefit at the Roadhouse.