We played outside St. Louis tonight at an amazing venue: Gene’s Country Club in Pevely. What a great destination! It’s a real old-time honky-tonk, out in the country on Indian Foot Lake, a serene country setting.
Gene’s is run by Randy Davis. His dad was Gene Davis. While that name isn’t a household word, if you’re a fan of rockabilly or country music, you should know who he was. Gene made records with Eddie Cochran under the name “Bo” Davis, and was also a member of the Blockbusters, who appeared in several 1950s movies, such as Rock All Night and Carnival Rock. (I always knew Gene Davis as the guy playing the cool Magnatone Mark V guitar in these films.)
Later, Gene became the leader of the house band at the Palomino club in North Hollywood in the 1960s. The Ventures drafted Mel Taylor out of the Palomino house band during this time to become the new drummer of the Ventures. Delaney Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie was also in the band.
During the same era in the mid-1960s, Gene was also the band leader for the Star Route television show, which featured the Collins Kids, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis, Glen Campbell, and Roy Clark.
Our host Randy grew up with all these people. “Jimmy Bryant took me water skiing”; “Nokie Edwards would crash on our couch sometimes, and I thought he was scary, he was so big”; “I played drums for Merle Travis once”. . . the stories kept coming. His dad moved back to Missouri in 1976 and built Gene’s Country Club on a beautiful piece of property. His dad played in the house band until he passed away in 2000, and Randy has been running the place ever since.
Gene’s has had lots of country music stars play there over the years, including Hank
Thompson, Leona Williams, Dale Watson, and Jay Farrar’s country band side project. And tonight, we got to play there. Thanks again to Craig Staubinger and the Blue Sparks for opening and for helping us get the gig at Gene’s.
Thanks so much for having us, Randy. We hope to come back again real soon.
See many more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
