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Fiddlin' with Dylan Hot Club of Cowtown take heart as opening act for folk legend When “the call” came, Elana Fremerman was playing Frisbee with her dog in the outfield of Fifth Third Ballpark, home of the Western Michigan White Caps. The “call” wasn't a phone call, the kind minor-leaguers get when they graduate to the big leagues, but it was just as promising. What she got instead was a nod and a wave from Bob Dylan's tour manager, who wanted to know whether Fremerman, a Prairie Village native and the fiddler in the Hot Club of Cowtown, wanted to sit in with Dylan's band later that night. Hot Club, a Texas swing trio, has opened every show of this summer's Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson tour of minor-league ballparks. “I was just kind of hanging out, playing with my dog and listening to Willie and his band when he walked over and invited me to sit in on the first couple of songs,” she said. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? Of course!' I was freaking out with excitement.” After a quick change back into her stage apparel and a quicker meeting with Dylan's band, Fremerman joined Dylan on stage and accompanied him on “Down Along the Cove” and “I'll Be Your Baby Tonight,” the last two songs on the “John Wesley Harding” album. “To be honest, I didn't know either song,” she said. “All I really knew was what key they were playing in. Later that night I bought the album those songs are on, in case he invited me to sit in again. And he did, the next night. But he played two completely different songs.” That second night, at O'Brien Field in Peoria, Ill., she sat in on “Cat's in the Well” and “Watching the River Flow.” By then she'd figured out that copies of the recorded versions of Dylan songs would do her no good. “You can't really prepare,” she said. “He does most of his songs in completely different styles and tempos.” Fremerman, a Shawnee Mission East grad, is used to adapting to new styles of music. Growing up, she studied the violin and played in various youth symphonies and orchestras, expecting to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Susan Kemner, a former violinist in the Kansas City Symphony. About the time she entered high school, though, Fremerman was having more fun playing bluegrass tunes for spare change on street corners in Westport than mastering classical positions and techniques and memorizing concertos. During summer breaks from college, she worked on a ranch in Clark, Colo., where she started playing fiddle in the ranch's cowboy band, a gig that deepened her affection for improvisation and western music. A few years later, when she was living in New York, the planets magically aligned: Not long after meeting Whit Smith, now the Hot Town guitarist, Fremerman heard for the first time the music of legendary jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, who decades ago had famously collaborated with guitarist Django Reinhardt in the Hot Club of France. “I fell in love with his style right away,” she told The Star in 1999. “I thought, ‘Why kill yourself studying concertos when you can play music like this?' ” She and Smith found a bassist (Bill Horton) and started Hot Club of Cowtown (Horton has since been replaced by Jake Erwin). The band signed with Hightone Records and in April 1998 released “Swingin' Stampede.” Since then it has toured relentlessly, picking up acclaim, accolades and brighter opportunities. The biggest so far: the chance to open for Dylan and Nelson, an invitation that came from Dylan himself. “He was watching TV in Germany late one night, some BBC show that's broadcast in Germany, and we were on it,” Fremerman said. “The next day, he mentioned us to his manager, and a little while later, they got in touch with us and invited us on the tour.” Every band that tries to make a good living out of music needs regular doses of encouragement and signs of validation — evidence that all the work, sacrifices and investments are paying off. The past six years have been rugged but generally gratifying, Fremerman said, because the evidence shows that their audience has grown bigger with each new album, including their fifth and latest, “Continental Stomp.” It also shows that her band's music has been reaching some famous people, whether it's Dylan in his hotel room in Germany or the producers of radio programs like “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio. “It's hard to say whether the music is getting closer to the mainstream or the mainstream is looking for our kind of music,” she said. “But our audience is a pretty wide, weird swath of America. We play for lots of people older than us, especially in Austin. We get people in their 70s coming in from all these rural Texas hamlets to hear us. We also get the ‘hipster' element, people closer to our ages who are interested in hearing roots and jazzy music.” Finding those fans, young or old, isn't easy. Bands like Hot Club that get little radio exposure have to rely on live shows, glowing reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations to get exposure and build a bigger fan base. That means lots of travel, little time off and a steely patience. “It's easy to feel like things aren't moving fast enough,” she said. “Whit says that any band that becomes anything usually has to wait six years. Maybe. This has been the best year of all. “Yes, sometimes we get sick of the road, but as long as things improve every few months or so, it's practically impossible to think about walking away from something that's so much fun and has so much promise.” |