Breakout country music sensation Jason Aldean performed to a packed house at Banana Joe’s in Huntington on Nov. 16. But even though the ready-for-primetime Aldean wowed the crowd with his big Top 15 hit “Hicktown,” the real story of the evening might have been opener Chelsea Field (above). Expect to see her name popping up sooner rather than later.

Field’s hard-edged yet pure mezzo voice is a mix of Gretchen Wilson and Janis Joplin with a dash of Faith Hill. People in the biz are definitely taking notice. Field is no stranger to the stage: her first opening was for Willie Nelson at the tender age of 11. Since then she has shared the billing with such names as Big and Rich, Pat Green, and Miranda Lambert.

In addition she is building an impressive repertoire of music–she has written about half of the songs she performs–that is thought-provoking yet fun to listen to. Gretchen Wilson has also contributed to Field’s song list–a tune called “Damn that Radio”–that might just be Chlsea’s first big one.

Keep an eye out for Field’s yet untitled CD due to be released sometime this spring on Rust Records.

—Jeff Hanson

Photos for thegazz.com by Stephen Ross

Manager Paul King and staff do the group photo thing outside Huntington’s newest trance music club — and Top 40, if you like that kind of thing. Photos by Stephen Ross for thegazz.com

ClubCrawl Profile: The Red Iguana is located at 819 Third Ave., Huntington, on the former site of “Pineapple Tom’s,” next to Banana Joe’s and features two fully stocked bars, softly lit interiors done in reds and blacks, comfortable couches and lounge chairs, and a dance floor complete with all the bells, whistles — and fog. Open seven days a week, 4 p.m. until 3 a.m. Cover $5 Friday and Saturday nights for men; women, no charge. Large private parties can be scheduled at the club. Call 525-4366.

By Jeff Hanson
For thegazz.com

The Red Iguana is the newest club to hit the Huntington scene, boasting a risky theme that “Herdtown” has not seen to date in a straight nightclub: trance music.

General manager Paul King acknowledges that there are several unique problems facing a rave club which caters to the 21-and-up crowd in a town where most of his competitors draw the line at 18. But he thinks the gamble will pay off in the long run.

“Most people associate trance music with teens or the gay community, but this is the first trance/house club in Huntington to try to cross those borders,” said King. “In a town like Huntington, where a bar can be hot for a few semesters and then suddenly die when their core customers graduate, I think you have to have a definite theme and stick with it to succeed.”

One thing is in this Iguana’s favor: It’s a franchise with clubs under its belt in Nashville, Knoxville and Minneapolis. Yet it remains to be seen if the smaller, more transient population of a college town like Huntington will come out in droves to support a club that features a style of music that has thus far only succeeded in more cosmopolitan areas.

CONTINUED…

As a genre, trance began as a marriage of techno and house music in Germany in the early ’90s. Solidly staying between the 110-130 BPM (beats per minute) range, trance shares its tempo and rhythmic structure with techno, while adding the trademark melodies of house music. The genre has been saddled with a bad rep for appealing to Ecstasy users as the perfect compliment for the drug. Here, the Red Iguana’s trancemeister, DJ Darwin, puts a mix together.

Photo for thegazz.com by Stephen Ross

Jodi Wilcox and Shandalay Morris mix it up at one of the Red Iguana’s bars. Photo by Jeff Hanson for thegazz.com

Red Iguana bartender Rob Williams shows off his full back bar. Photo for thegazz by Jeff Hanson.

In spite of the music’s rep and the ban on the usual, youthful audience, King believes he can make a go of the Iguana in Huntington. He is hedging his bets just to be sure. “We are not going to play trance all night if we discover that’s not what our customers want. We are here for them and we are already starting to incorporate some Top 40 stuff in our mix,” King said.

If you attended the Oct. 14 Rascal Flatts and Blake Shelton concert at Charleston Civic Center — or if you didn’t but want a sense of the stage spectacle and some cool crowd shots — click over to thegazz.com ‘Snapshows’ under the ‘Web Media’ pull-down menu at the top of this page or just click here for a photo album of shots by Gatecrasher shutterbug Stephen Ross.

After the Rascal Flatts concert ended on Oct. 14, gazz ‘Gatecrasher’ photographer Stephen Ross headed out to The Sound Factory. There, he found you COULD kick Nixon around again. West Virginia rockers Split Nixon were raising the roof and Stephen caught them and some of the crowd, in action. Click here to see the music and the motion.