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Clam Daddys half notes kick it old-school

By Jeremy Johnson
jjohn308@mscd.edu

In a common nod to hipster credibility, critics love to tell their readers how a band isn’t “your grandpa’s idea of good music.” But in the case of Denver’s big-bearded bluesmen The Clam Daddys, with their charming blend of Delta and “Zippity-Do- Dah,” it is exactly your grandpa’s idea of good music. And like most good music that transcends time, it makes you realize that maybe Gramps was onto something after all. Besides, without him you wouldn’t even be here, right?

But without the influences of blues, jazz, ragtime, big band, swing and, of course, “Zippity- Do-Dah,” The Clam Daddys wouldn’t be who they are now.

“Our materials are a cross section of American music,” said stout and froggy frontman Moses Walker, who sports a giant, gray beard akin to the great Biblical prophet with whom he shares his namesake. “It’s blues based, but there’s a lot of different structures.”

A lot of structure is to be expected from the likes of Walker, who plays a number of instruments aside from guitar that include the piano, bass, harmonica and mandolin.

The Daddys are clearly steeped in music, from the cultural aspects to the technical ones. Walker — who began playing nearly 50 years ago — and his tall, lanky, howling-harmonica sidekick Tommy Knox have nearly a century’s knowledge of the craft between them. And, like Walker, Knox sports a ZZ Top-style beard that’s probably older than Top’s frontman Billy Gibbons himself.

The fact is The Clam Daddys — with their throwback influences and aged Americana stylings — aren’t so much old, but rather the epitome of classic, cool and old school. Walker wills himself upon the audience with a voice like Louis Armstrong chewing on gravel bubblegum, combined with a relentless tempo and impeccable, robust rhythm. All the while, Knox keeps pace on the harmonica, occasionally interjecting juicy, mumbling hillbilly sound bites about loose women and looser mores.

“It’s all about how melodies get changed around,” Knox said. “But it’s really all about a simple song and making it swing, making it happen.” The Clam Daddys do, indeed, “make it swing” with original ditties like “Viper Jive” and “It Was the Wine,” as well as reliable renditions of “Sugar Coated Love,” “Built For Speed” and countless other covers of your gramps’ assorted oldies-but-goodies.

While Knox and Walker often perform only as a duo, The Clam Daddys also perform as a trio, a foursome and, every Sunday night at downtown Denver’s Appaloosa Grill on Welton and the 16th Street Mall, a quintet.

“Sundays are a lot of fun because we change the guitar player around every week,” Walker said.

Judging by how these elder gents swing on stage, that poor sap is going to have a hard time keeping up.