Tucson's Fourth Wooden Ball Carves A Niche For Local Talent. By Jennifer Murphy BACK IN 1987, Chris Holiman thought that the Tucson music scene was becoming too splintered. The spirit of competition for venues and headlining opportunities had degenerated into backbiting and bitter resentment among local players. Holiman, who now plays in 35 Summers, wanted to change that, so he hatched the concept of the Wooden Ball. "The whole idea was to have a bunch of bands play a single venue in one night," Holiman tells me over a late lunch at the Cup Café. "The most efficient way to do it was to have the bands perform acoustically, thereby limiting equipment changes between sets. Each band does a 20-minute set, with a different band performing every half hour." Aside from tearing down layers of bad feelings, there was another more aesthetically oriented reason behind the idea. "When bands bring their own equipment, they tend to do their usual sets. But if you give them a different set of circumstances--like it's acoustic and you only have a short amount of time--then they make up a whole new set. They know that everyone else is dealing with the same parameters, so not only does it become more of a communal thing, but other things stand out, like the singing. There are a lot of really great singers in Tucson whose voices sometimes get overshadowed by the P.A." The first Wooden Ball performance was at the gone-but-not-forgotten Nino's, the fondly remembered steak house that served as alternative-central in Tucson through most of the '80s. "It took about four months to put together that first show," Chris recalls. "I had to call the bands over and over again because nobody thought it would work. Amazingly, it did work." The next Wooden Ball didn't come together for another seven years, in 1994. By that time, there wasn't as much arm-twisting required to get bands to participate, and a new home was established at Club Congress. "Now it only takes me a week of phone calls to line up the bands," he says. "It has sort of taken on a life of its own now. I hadn't even planned to do this one, but everyone urged me to do it, so I did. I don't feel like I have to do that much anymore, anyway." The 1996 Wooden Ball includes performances by artists who've established roots in the music biz such as Paula Jean Brown, Naked Prey, Rainer and Al Perry, along with relative newcomers like Shoe Bomb, Greyhound Soul and White Chrome Splendor. MaryAnne (formerly Ginger), The Drakes, Black Moon Graffiti, Dog & Pony Show, Joe Rush and 35 Summers will be there, along with a few surprises. "Winston will be playing with MaryAnne and Paula Jean Brown," Holiman reveals. (Winston is Bob Dylan's drummer.) "And Howe Gelb will be playing with Dog & Pony Show." Billy Sed, who performed at the original Wooden Ball at Nino's, sits in with Rainer, and the Tempe band Satellite will mark the first performance by a non-Tucson band at the Ball. "I've always been a bit of a snob, thinking that Tucson had better songwriters, but right now I could put Tempe bands up against Tucson bands," Chris says somewhat defensively. "I know a lot of people in Tucson will disagree with me, but there are a lot of great songwriters in Tempe." Since the original concept was to bring the local music scene together, inviting Tempe bands seems to be a natural progression. "If I'm going to continue to do it, I want the show to ascend to the next level and bring Tempe bands down to play the Wooden Ball, and in general have bands play back and forth between Tucson and Tempe. There are a lot of people who want to do that." There are a lot of people from both Tucson and Tempe who've been working toward that end. Unfortunately, Tucson can't match the Valley of the Sun when it comes to sheer numbers of venues. This results in a lot of frustration for Tempe bands who can't play here often enough to build an audience. "Yeah, Club Congress is a great place to play and those bands really appreciate being able to do shows there," Holiman acknowledges, "but how often can they play there? Not that often." He does see a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the form of a local angel by the name of Suzi Dunn. "I think that alternative radio is going to help a lot," he says, suddenly becoming more animated. "I don't see any reason why more clubs shouldn't have more alternative shows. Suzi is playing a lot of local music on KFMA (92.1 FM), and she's beginning to change the whole scene. I can't give her enough credit. "From a business man's point of view, club owners want to book a blues or Reggae band because it's more of a known commodity, especially to the college crowd. But with the change in local radio we might be able to break through, too. I have people coming up to me now saying they've heard my songs on the radio and it's great to finally receive that kind of acknowledgment for local music a lot of people didn't know existed." Most of the bands on the Wooden Ball roster either already have CDs out, or are in the process of recording. "My local CD collection is about like this now," Holiman beams, placing his hands about 18 inches apart. "It's great!" While those adversarial relationships remain inevitable in our small pond of big fish, Holiman remains firm that the situation is improving. "It seems as though there have always been at least two bands involved in a major rivalry," he admits, "...like whichever band was on top was going to get the record deal. Now I know that's just ridiculous. If another local band were to be signed, it would only help the scene overall. "I suppose if there is a competition going on it's between 35 Summers and the Drakes, but we love each other! It's love! We share the same practice space, so we gotta love each other." He's laughing now and the sun is sinking behind the downtown Tucson skyline. It's January and it's 80 degrees outside. The East Coast is buried in snow. It would be almost impossible not to feel optimistic. The Wooden Ball runs from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., on Friday, January 19. Tickets are $6 in advance, available at Club Congress, and $8 at the door. Call 622-8848 for information.

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