Charlie Louvin

No mothballs needed for Charlie Louvin show Concert Review

The gray moth fluttered above the Blue Door stage, rose toward the ceiling and then hovered near country music legend Charlie Louvin's head.

Louvin opened his mouth to sing. The moth disappeared.

"I just opened my mouth to sing that song, and a bug flew in my mouth,” Louvin quipped. "He's a slow walker. I'm going to wash it down.” Louvin raised a water bottle and swallowed.

Whether he really swallowed the moth could not be immediately confirmed. But it is certain the moths are not flying out of his mouth when he sings these days.

Performing Thursday, his vocals were not rusty; his wits were salty and sharp. His down-home comments about modern life on the road were amusing, though not always politically correct, and his harmonies brought back the days of his former life in The Louvin Brothers.

Since the 1940s, Louvin, 79, has influenced generations of country music singers from bluegrass to the more modern, full-band styles of today's pop-country.

Louvin once sang the low notes and his late brother Ira Louvin hit the high notes with the Louvin Brothers. But Charlie Louvin embarked on a solo career shortly before Ira Louvin was killed in a 1965 car wreck.

Charlie Louvin, a Grand Ole Opry regular since 1955, said he has worked with a lot of good high tenor singers since his brother was killed but said, "There are no Ira Louvin singers out there.” He sang the touching song "Ira,” an ode to his late brother.

With a guitar player, drummer, Dobro picker and electric bass player, Charlie Louvin's act successfully mixes a modern country sound with traditional tinges. He sang such country music and Louvin Brothers staples as "Runnin' Wild,” "When I Stop Dreamin'” "Cash on the Barrelhead,” "Must You Throw Dirt in My Face,” "Satan's Jewelled Crown,” and the eerie Cold War era song, "The Great Atomic Power.”

Louvin also sang the timeless country song "Knoxville Girl,” a song he first started singing with the Louvin Brothers in 1946. The song is not about a Tennessee girl, but about a girl murdered in England by a possessive boyfriend. It dates to 1723, he said.

He said while he prefers hearing electrified instruments today, he is still devoted to songs so country "you can shuck it.”

Wearing a black fisherman's cap, Louvin teased the pretty women in the audience and showed a lot of stamina singing through a nearly two-hour set of classic country before stopping to give away photographs and pose for pictures until midnight.

Blue Door owner Greg Johnson, enthralled by the country music hall of famer, told Louvin to play all night if he wanted.

"This won't be the last time Charlie Louvin plays the Blue Door,” Johnson vowed.

No mothballs needed.

— Robert Medley