Another One Bites the Dust
Kenny, for his part, was mostly a stand-and-play musician. There was little pretense, if any, in his performance. He was a rock ‘n’ roll disciple testifying from the black triangular dais as fervently as anyone Sam had ever seen. The gospel of bluesy rock & roll he preached into the microphone had entranced not only Sam, but the entire audience. The man, the singer, had soul, and he was bearing it for the entire congregation that showed up for this late-night mass.
Kenny’s big blue boot was deliberately stomping out a rhythm to the Black Crowe’s haunted ballad “She Talks to Angels”. Apropos of the song, the first verse didn’t feel so much sung as torn from somewhere deep inside the big guy’s spirit. Sam, Sid, and the locals who’d packed the room looked as though they’d been lulled into a state of suspended animation as Kenny alternately howled and scowled through the verses. To a neutral presence, the scene would’ve had the feel of an ironic vignette from a DC Comic’s strip where The Flash was moving so much faster than everyone else that he looked to be operating in slow motion amid a field of statues.
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Excerpt from All or Nothing Girl, the forthcoming novella from Blake Charles Donley
Blake Charles Donley 