Reckless Kelly

Reckless Kelly proudly carries the Americana/alt-country/Red Dirt torch. The Idaho-born, Austin-based group has been going for more than a quarter of a century now, but they remain as strong as ever live and in the studio.

Reckless Kelly Live In Concert

But after 18 months of being cooped up, a significant portion of the crowd that came out to see Reckless Kelly on Friday night was in no mood to sit. Midway through the 100-minute show, several pockets of people — mostly women — stood up and started dancing and grooving to the music.

Willy Braun made a distinction that explains a lot about the state of today's music business when he introduced the first of two songs from Reckless Kelly's most recent studio album at a concert last week.

Reckless Kelly started off with the harder, rootsy side of the Austin band's repertoire, beginning with Ragged as the Road and Save Me From Myself before launching into an extended take - a very fine one at that - on Alejandro Escovedo's Castanets.

Seattle, USA

That's because RK lead singer Willy Braun and his compadres often channeled the Earle ghost in their music.