What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1183130
couple of years. And through him we got to meet a lot of people … who otherwise we wouldn't have." Ernie and Earl may not be boastful of the impact they've had on the region's music scene, but any investigation into the musical roots — no matter how shallow a dive — will turn up their names again and again. They've got stories of celebrity hangouts, watching the industry change, and memories of Dickson Street when it "wasn't as fancy as it is now," according to Earl. (All of which you've got to hear in our podcast interview with the twins!) But fancy or not, the Cate Brothers are always glad to be home, and we're glad they're giving us the chance to celebrate their legacy. "It's amazing after all this time that we can still play George's and it be full of people," Ernie says with a chuckle. "It kind of amazes me every time we do it. I think, 'Well, sooner or later it's going to be nobody.'" "It's still our favorite place to play," Earl adds. NOVEMBER 10-16, 2019 WHAT'S UP! 9 time, somehow missed out on the British invasion that took over the music world. Playing the country-influenced rock of The Everly Brothers is where the pair really got their start performing. That foundation dovetailed nicely with the education the budding musicians would later get outside Ronnie Hawkins' south Fayetteville venue, the Rockwood Club. "We were too young to get in, [so we'd] stand out in the back and look through the fan — they had a big fan in the back," Ernie remembers. "We'd listen to music from there and heard a lot of music that we hadn't heard before — Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Ray Charles. His band was playing a lot of that stuff that we'd never heard. And that kind of changed our thoughts about music." Arkansas Sound Ronnie Hawkins' rockabilly-esque brand of rock and roll helped usher in a distinct sound for the region that has continued even to the present. Names known today by history buffs and music lovers — and a few that would rocket past that modicum of celebrity and go on to true fame — either emerged in the region during this time or came to the area to perform. "Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, … that became The Band, eventually. We were friends with them and actually saw that group evolve to where it became The Band," Earl says, pointing to one of Arkansas' most famous musical exports. "And then like Windy Austin, Zorro & The Blue Footballs, there's so many bands when you think back, you lose track, that were fairly successful. There's just always been a lot of music here." Including The Cate Brothers Band. The pair started out with The Cates Gang in the early '70s and released a couple albums that have been out of print for decades. When they became The Cate Brothers Band, they also landed a contract with Asylum Records. Several albums followed — with Asylum and after — international touring, and an ever-growing reputation for expert musicianship. All the while, the brothers stayed true to their country/ soul roots — with a blues and R&B leaning. "There wasn't a category for that back then, [people] didn't know what it was," Ernie says. "Back in the early '60s, we played in Joplin, Mo., in the summer, like six nights a week at this club," Earl recalls. "And at the time, we were playing just kind of what we play, but there was a big difference, even just in that distance, in the music that bands were playing up there and what we were playing. I was bending guitar strings, and they were like, 'What are you doing? What is that?' 'Cause they had never heard it. "We were kind of fortunate to be in [music] at a certain time when everything was blooming," Earl continues. "Like the mid-'70s, right before disco took over, it was a really good time, and we kind of got in on a lot of that. And being associated with Levon [Helm] and those guys, we actually played with The Band for a Courtesy photos Visit the online version of this story at nwadg.com/features to catch the podcast interview with the Cate Brothers that accompanies this story. Ernie and Earl talk about growing up in Northwest Arkansas, their career and a few unforgettable memories with their contemporaries. The Cate brothers' first record, "Wanted," was their debut as The Cates Gang in 1972.