Knoxville520.com

The band includes Will Horton and Cooper Hardison—each the son of a Knoxville music icon—who wowed the crowd at last spring’s second annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash. Respectively, the teenagers are sons of Steve Horton, co-founder of legendary country swing band the Lonesome Coyotes, and veteran jazz guitarist Phil Hardison who has backed Nancy Brennan, among others.

“Cooper and Will brought the median age of attendees below 57,” quipped Nelda Hill, director of the Knox County Public Library Sights and Sounds Department. The Dylan festival, a project to raise money for the library, is a creation of the elder Horton.

“If there was a show-stopping act that night, it was Will and Cooper,” Hill added. “It's great to look at the future and see it knows all the same songs I do.”

Will, lead singer and harmonica player for the Black Cadillacs, is joined not only by Cooper (guitar and vocals) but cousin Matthew Hyrka (lead guitar and vocals); Phillip Anderson (bass); and Jesse Barden (drums).

The dividends of growing up in a musical family don’t extend solely along the paternal line. “The old man” might have introduced Will to a variety of music genres growing up, but, he credits his mother, Liz, as having a significant influence on his musical tastes by playing the Rolling Stones for him. Plus, teaching him some dance steps. The tribute show—at which numerous local bands cover their favorite Dylan songs—was Will and Cooper’s first gig together but Will’s public debut actually was about three years ago when he and Matthew, only in their mid-teens, played an open mic in Memphis.

Matthew and some other friends, including Phillip, actually started the Black Cadillacs in Memphis. When the band was in town, at Sassy Ann’s, for instance, Will sat in with them. Matthew and Phillip moved to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee and that’s when Will and his old schoolchum Cooper became full-fledged members. A fortuitous stroll completed the band lineup. “Matthew and I were walking around campus one day discussing the need for a drummer when we heard some really great drum licks coming from a nearby window. We jumped over this hedge and found the window and told the guy to meet us in the commons. And that’s how we met Jesse.”

$3 cover charge
8 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 28th
Corner Lounge
842 N. Central Ave.
865.971.1711

The Black Caddys next local gig will be at the Knoxville Track Club/Covenant Health marathon April 1.