Hillbilly Vibes

When you hear about actors who become touring musicians, you think of terrible bands, from Steven Seagal's Thunderbox to Corey Feldman's Truth Movement. But Billy Bob Thornton is onto something.

Thornton's trio, The Boxmasters, is an entertaining, fairly macho group influenced by 1960s mod pop and hillbilly vibes.

One of the catchiest Boxmasters songs is "I'm Watchin' the Game." Thornton, who earned an Oscar for writing "Sling Blade," sings tragicomic lyrics in character that are grittier and more conversational than most bands:

"Stop telling me stuff/Quit asking me (expletive)/Can't you see/I'm watchin' the game?/ ... If the Cardinals lose/You'll be the one to blame/Stop rubbin' my chest/Stay offa my chair/For Pete's sake, it's only for two hours/ ... Why don't you go out and pick some flowers. ... Later on, you can drive me insane."

The Arkansas native came close to playing pro ball in Kansas City, and he is, for sure, unabashedly a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. So when I ask him about "I'm Watchin' the Game," he doesn't mind backing up the song's premise.

"That's what happens," he says. "You're trying to watch the game, and they (women) just don't understand. Right now, I'm in my own world with the Cardinals.

"It's all I think about. I just sit and watch baseball all the time."

The band members tell me they expect their families, including female beloveds, to come cheer for them at tonight's concert at the Hard Rock Hotel, since the Boxmasters are based nearby in Los Angeles.

This being Las Vegas, the "mod-billy" band will be aided onstage by what they call a couple of "classy" go-go dancer "gals" doing the swim "and all those good ol' moves."

"The Boxmasters were created around the love of the British Invasion next to hillbilly music," Thornton says. "So we're gonna have a couple of girls dressed in the mod miniskirts and everything, and just do it all up like the '60s."

That's for the first set.

"The second set is the big rock show and all my solo stuff" from Thornton's previous solo albums, he says.

The band always performs in Kinks-esque suits, which are black or mod. Some suits are tailor-modified vintage. Others come from a U.K. company called Beatwear, which sells authentic Beatles reproduction outfits and Chelsea boots.

"It feels really good" to wear that stuff onstage, says Mike Butler, guitarist and L.A. engineer of note. "We sound check in our normal clothes, and it almost feels weird now, like: 'I can't play this stuff in regular shoes.' "

On tour, Butler used to play lap steel or pedal steel guitar. But now they've enlisted the great Marty Rifkin for that. Butler says it used to slow momentum when he swapped guitars onstage.

"It's a difficult thing" to play lap steel, he says. "And if you have one beer too many, you're all over the place."

The other band member is J.D. Andrew, a producer and engineer who's polished the Pussycat Dolls and others. He and Butler have no desire to cover songs in concert that they've helped engineer for others.

" 'Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me' doesn't really work for a bunch of dudes," Andrew says.

If you ask me, I'd say you might like the sound of the band if you're a fan of countrified rockabilly and Bonnie Raitt or, for certain, Willie Nelson. The Boxmasters have done well on the Americana Music Association charts, getting spun next to idols such as Little Feat and Nelson.

Their concerts come with an assortment of fans.

"We get everything from college kids to people's grandmas. It's a diverse crowd," Andrew says.

Thornton says the band already has recorded most of a new album due next spring and a Christmas album due Nov. 11. That one mixes both traditional holiday songs that have been "Boxmasterized" (like a rockabilly "We Three Kings") plus three new holiday songs.

"They're darker, I'll put it that way," Thornton says. "Darker than most Christmas songs."

If there's one Thornton movie the band most reminds me of in spirit, it's "Bad Santa." And even though Thornton is as nice as could be during this interview, a bit of "Bad Santa" comes out in him when he describes how the trio got Boxmasters tattoos inked on them while on tour.

"J.D. (Andrew) had never had one before, so it was kind of fun watchin' him grimace," Thornton says.

Did Thornton at least let Andrew get some booze in him to alleviate the pain?

"He had a couple of beers, but I wanted him to feel the whole thing. You gotta do that. You gotta experience it semisober."

Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.