Thursday, June 26, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Cover Story: New shade of blues

The Sand Dollar goes for broader appeal

By Andrew Kiraly

The Moanin' Blacksnakes are showboating on a fiery rendition of Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog," and the crowd is all claps and hoots as leadman Scott Rhiner, guitar behind his head, wrings lines from it like he's yanking a poodle on a leash. It's a party, all right: The longtime blues band marks its seventh anniversary, plying the bar's bikers, blue-collars, hipsters and frat boys with classics and crowd-pleasers alike. After the song, a waitress pops on stage, bearing whiskey for the band. It's the cue for Rhiner's trademark crack: "Remember, the more you drink, the better we sound."

The Moanin' Blacksnakes have been the Sand Dollar Blues Lounge's Saturday night band for 3 1/2 years now, as dependable as the sting of tequila. Now the act might be considered a familiar anchor at an evolving venue. Since January, a quiet revamping has been under way at the longtime blues joint that's managed to not only carve out a home in the city of reinvention, but maintain its seven-night-a-week live music schedule like clockwork for more than a decade. The new logo and new coat of paint are just the start; Sand Dollar honchos hope to start drawing bigger crowds with a wider roster of bands. Between longtime owner Brad Huffman and new manager Karen Wedel, the Sand Dollar is charting a new course that balances its roots with a restlessness to try on some new shades of blue.

"We've had our busy times and our slow times," says Huffman, who co-owns the bar with his father, George. "Overall, it's held steady over the years. We'll still be known as the place to come to listen to the blues for locals, tourists and even professional musicians who stop in after their shows and sometimes sit in. But we want to break the cycle of getting stuck in the same routine."

What was dependable to some meant staid to others, and a few Sand Dollar vets say the crowd has ebbed in recent years. Wedel, who became the manager in mid-January, hopes to bring back those old fans as well as some new blood, with a more ambitious show roster and a higher profile for the club--primarily in the form of a new, nicely polished website (www.sanddollarblues.com).

"I want to shake things up a bit," Wedel says. "A lot of people tell me the place isn't quite how it used to be. I want to bring that old crowd back and bring in some people who might never have thought of coming in before."

Or avoided it. Indeed, the stereotypes surrounding the Sand Dollar as a rough biker bar are stubborn but unfounded; sure, there are plenty of Harley-straddling dudes and dudettes throwing back shots, but they happily rub elbows with the rest of the crowd, which ranges from office workers letting their hair down to college kids looking to get in some weekend slumming. So far, Wedel's tenure as the venue's booking agent has borne promising fruit: Next month sees a crop of out-of-town talent hitting the stage, from Boston's Bruce Katz (July 11), who rips out the blues on his custom Hammond B-3, to the high-powered blues-rock of L.A.'s Stoney Curtis Band (July 18-19). Wedel's even tossing in a few rock tribute bands such as Steel Wheels, and is hoping to arrange some live remotes with local rock stations. The changes are already taking hold, she says. "Now you might see a limo pull up right next to all the bikes, and a couple in full evening wear comes out," she says.

What won't change is the venue's cozy-but-gritty vibe that, next to the music, has proved to be the Sand Dollar's main selling point.

"The thing I love about this place is that it's like playing in someone's living room," says Rhiner. "It's always been the place where you could come and get a little dirty and feel good about it. It's kind of like the blues. It may never get huge, but it'll never go away. It is what it is. It's real."