By John Pluntze

The Seattle-based blues band, Ravinwolf ( www.ravinwolf.com / www.myspace.com/ravinwolfband ), which has already enjoyed two successful gigs here in the Wood RIver Valley during the past week, at Papa Hemi''s Hideaway (on March 3rd & 10th), will be performing tonight at Hailey's Sun Valley Brewing Company Restarant & Bar (from 7-10 p.m.), as well as at Bellevue's Silver Dollar Saloon on Friday, March 12th (at 9 p.m.), and at Fresshies in Hailey on Saturday, March 13th at 6 p.m.

This critically-acclaimed acoustic blues band (Barbie Hull, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last year, called them a band that "takes you someplace new in vocals," and one that features two "refreshingly original guitar artists"), is currently embarked on a four-state, eight-week tour of Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho that first began on Valentine's Day weekend and one that will eventually encompass more than 30 cities throughout the Northwest.

"It's been a really rough tour; I mean, it took us nine months just to get this lined up," Jamey Bilyeu, the band's co-founder (along with his wife, Heather, who is the band's co-lead singer and co-lead acoustic guitarist), told me recently, before adding, "But it's also been a very humbling and exciting one for us. The people have been incredibly supportive and generous to us, which, especially given the ongoing recession, we didn't -- and don't -- take for granted AT ALL. We've always been a verrry grassroots-type band, so for us, it's pretty much one nickel at a time, one mile at a time, one guitar string at a time, and one fan at a time."

"Just like Obama!", Heather Bilyeu added eagerly, when I talked the other day with her, Jamey and their extremely gifted drummer of the past five years, Rodney Turner, while the three of them took a much-needed break from their western whirlwind tour.

Jamey Bilyeu first enjoyed a great deal success onstage in Seattle as the lead singer and gu itarist for the popular rock band, The Yard Dogs -- a Seattle-based band he co-founded in the 1970s that opened for a number of headline acts back in the day, including Steppenwolf and Bachman Turner Overdrive. He also worked for years, in various capacities, and has been friends for many years with Heart lead singers Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heather's vocals can sometimes be almost jaw-dropingly similar to Ann's), and former Heart lead guitarist Roger Fisher (who also played with The Yard Dogs for a time).

Heather, back in those early days, was also in Seattle -- regularly performing her own Heart-inspired "Dog & Butterfly" cover tunes act there, gaining increasing popularity and notoriety there in the city and otherwise carving out an admirably-sizable niche for herself in a music scene that, even back then, seemed extremely crowded with up-and-coming 20-something musicians of one sort or another.

Heather's first taste of fame, however, came even earlier -- at age 17, when she and a number of other music students from her Washington state high school suddenly found themselves in Kyoto and Haikado, Japan, performing before a number of top-level Japanese officials there. "It was one of those things I didn't really fully realize or fully appreciate the significance of until I was older. But it was a verrry cool and exciting for me, no doubt about it!"

But it wasn't until Heather met her future husband and joined Ravinwolf that things for both she and Jamey really took off -- an acoustic blues band whose formation by Jamey, ironically, had as much to do with the ever-eclipsing 1980s Grunge and Nirvana music scene craze of the time there in Seattle as anything else.

"The Nirvana and Grunge explosion in Seattle back in those days pretty much knocked me out of my 'lofty' singer-songwriter status there, and I eventually went into the Sagebrush (blues) scene more or less in exile ... and that's where I met up with Heather."

After several years regularly working and performing as Ravinwolf in Alaska (both Heather and Jamey, btw, are very accomplished private chefs when they're not working as musicians, and they were "endlessly ecstatic" about checking out chef Lynn Sheehan's New York Times-raved upon kitchen there at Papa Hemi's Hideaway recently), the couple decided to return to the lower 48 and concentrate on making a bigger mark in the continental U.S. music scene, first in the Portland-Seattle arenas, and then elsewhere.

"Alaska was a really great place for us to cut our teeth and make our mark, as far as being a SERIOUS touring band," Heather explained. "You never knew from one night to the next if you'd be playing for one lone fisherman, or a very smoky bar that was overflowing with people who were literally hanging from the rafters!!"

Jamey concurs. "It taught us very early on how to travel well together as a band and more importantly, perhaps, also how to effectively partition our energy -- to SAVE some -- 'cuz if you DON'T, you have nothing left for the next gig ... which doesn't work for YOU OR YOUR AUDIENCE."

"I think what each of us brings to Ravinwolf is a lot of verrry valuable knowledge, insight and experience -- like a chef bringing his incredients to a great recipe," Jamey added.

Rodney Turner, who joined this critically-acclaimed, decade-old blues band some five years ago (Jamey says they've gone through something like 30 Ravinwolf drummers over the last 15 years), certainly brings a wealth of knowledge, insight and experience to the tasty and infectious Ravinwolf mix as well.

A native of Los Angeles, Turner's uncle was none other than the legendary 1950s/'60s blues great "Big" Joe Turner ("Shake, Rattle and Roll," "Corinne, Corinna," "Well All Right," Cherry Red") ... a blood relative who undoubtedly had much to do with inspiring Turner's unabashedly eclectic and exciting musical career from a very early age -- a career that has included stints with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cristine Aguilera, Brian McKnight and Fishbone -- and a career that has likewise taught him over the years to partition his energy on the road and otherwise take each day as it comes.

"Sly Stone said that 90 percent of the job's getting to the gig," Turner said. "And for us, I think, traveling together is always a terrific bonding ritual of sorts -- a way for us to once again be humbled and excited and inspired by the people we meet, and the audiences we are privileged enough to play for."

When I asked the very happily married Turner if he ever feels like a referee sometimes traveling on the road in close quarters with Heather and Jamey (who are married to each other), he smiled and laughed. "Nooooo, they actually do REALLY well on the road together; I was kinda surprised!"

"We're verrry Yin and Yang," Jamey added with a laugh, referring to himself and Heather (Jamey is a Gemini, and Heather is a Capricorn).

Wood River Valley listeners may have to remind themselves more than once when they see Ravinwolf live at one or more of their remaining gigs here this week that they ARE, in fact, listening to acoustic and not electric guitars, something that the band is obviously very proud of.

"When I began playing guitar," Jamey recalls, "I didn't have the money for an electric, so I just started beatin' away on my acoustic until I was almost matching what my friends down the street were doing on their electrics, and it just sorta stayed with me over the years."

Those lean and humble early times, which Heather and Rodney also had their fair share of growing up, have inevitably had a lot to do with some of the songs they've written and recorded, and also with some of the "social conscience" causes they are obviously very passionate about, including Haiti earthquake relief (they raised over $10,000 at a recent one-night benefit concert in Oregon), animal rights (Heather introduced the band to the World Society For the Protection of Animals shortly after joining Ravinwolf, and now WSPA ( http://www.wspa-usa.org/ ) is one of the many non-profit groups the band regularly and proudly donates a portion of their proceeds to), small family farms ("Family Farm" is one of the many standout tracks on 2010's "Ravinwolf: Live At the Columbia Theatre" album, an album which, like their two other albums -- 1997's "How Are You?" and 2007's "Buttons & Freedom" -- will be for sale at their Sun Valley Brewery, Silver Dollar and Fresshies gigs this week).

"Each night, we don't exactly know where the music is gonna go, but the MUSIC PLAYS the BAND," Jamey said. "And that music, in a very real sense, IS our 'conscience' because we're always tryin' to keep it as real and honest and genuine as we possibly can -- whether we're on the road or in a studio -- and I think THAT is what our audiences REALLY respond to and connect with ... and it's also why we're still enjoying this so much and why we've lasted for so long when so many of our contemporaries out there haven't."

Added Heather: "We seriously bring 'The Party' when we play! And I think people who do see us here will sense that about us immediately... We REALLY love what we do onstage. We have a terrific symbiotic relationship -- much like ravens and wolves do -- and we absolutely feed off each other's energy and enthusiasm when we play, and also that of the people who see us perform."

Other music samples of Ravinwolf's music -- in addition their www.ravinwolf.com and www.myspace.com/ravinwolfband sites -- can be found at www.sonicbids.com/ravinwolf and www.facebook.com/ravinwolf .
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RAVE REVIEW:
I just saw Ravinwolf perform live for the very first time on Wednesday (March 10th) and it was less than ten minutes into their set the other night that I suddenly REALLY wished I'd seen them the previous week as well (when they were also performing on a Wednesday night at Papa Hemi's Hideaway, in Ketchum) because between the brilliantly-colored tie-dye flag they had affectionately stretched out in one corner of the restarant, the equally eye-catching tie-dye T-shirt (and bandana) that Jamey Bilyeu was wearing onstage AND those often brilliantly-executed guitar riffs that both he and wife Heather were featuring -- not to mention those seriously kick-ass conga drums that Rodney Turner was making verrrry much his own that night in no time at all -- I suddenly felt like I had missed out on some very, very special by NOT seeing Ravinwolf on March 3rd as well.

But whatever I may've missed out on a week before, the March 10th show they gave they other night was positively brimming with high energy and infectious enthusiasm and unceasing respect for their audience (the latter I say because it was a Wednesday full of very popular music-oriented events in Ketchum -- Susan Spelius Dunning, R.L. Rowsey and Zachary Prince having a George Gershwin music night at the Church of the Big Wood; Maria Laura Bustamante & Alejandro Rivas once again dazzling and enchanting their audience there at the increasingly-populated CIRO Market's Wine Lounge; the Paul Tillotson Trio seriously kickin' it once again up at Sun Valley's Duchin Room (with guest NYC drummer Ross Pederson), etc -- and it would've been soooo easy for Ravinwolf to look around at the dozen or so of us there at Papa Hemi's that night, thrown up their hands in exasperation and dejection, and then just sorta phoned it in for the rest of the evening.

But they didn't.

Instead, they played with the sort of unbridled heart and soul and power that the two CDs of theirs I borrowed recently from Hemi's Hideway co-owner Matt Vandernoot only HINT at in many cases. And as the night wore on, they seemed to only get better and more determined than ever to give their small, but loyal audience the (musical) ride of their life -- and that they did!!!

After several classic cover tunes ("Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Name," "Friend of the Devil," Willie Dixon's "Shake It For Me," Robert Cray's "21"), Ravinwolf then eagerly embarked on a endlessly energetic and inspired series of songs from their own albums ("The Last Cowboy," "Hand In Glove," "Just West of August," "Last Cowboy," "Take Me Away," "Where the Horses Run Free," etc) that left little doubt in ANYONE'S mind there that night why this Seattle-based blues band has managed to survive and thrive for over a decade now, while so many of its contemporaries have indeed fallen by the wayside or otherwise been forgotten about.

And don't be at all surprised when Heather sings stellar lead vocals on "Make Believe" if you don't find yourself closing your eyes at some point (as I did) and wondering if you're not in the presence of now-legendary Heart lead singer Ann Wilson ("Barracuda," "Alone," "What About Love?," "Dreamboat Annie", etc)  instead.

Ravinwolf totally slays...