A true nomad and storyteller with a big bushy beard, one-man-band Smokestack and the Foothill Fury's Jarod Yerkes is an anomaly in these modern times. While the dutiful members of the work-a-day world find it wiser to stay put, place their heads in the sand and make minimum credit card payments, Smokey, as he calls himself, gigs across the country, from one city to next, and loops back around to South Florida stages about once every three months. When we caught up with him at the Monterey Club in April, he was traveling in a truck trailer with an adventurous girlfriend and a dog.
We'll see what he rolls into town with tonight when he plays Poor House. Once Smokey's stool is set up behind his little wooden drum box, the 32-year-old musician grabs his guitar, rolls his head around and falls into some sort of hillbilly trance. Then, he launches into a furious concoction of blues, country and tales from the road that is pure American salt and soul.
If the spectacle doesn't hold your rapt attention for a good solid hour,
your senses have probably been numbed by too much exposure to Top 40.
It might be time to look into that. Typically, Yerkes places a stack of
burned Ain't Gonna Pine CDs next to a gas can somewhere near the stage
with a sign for the audience to "fill her up", but the flyer for his
Poor House show promises a "New CD". And there's always the promise of him passing wisdom along like "crack's bad, reefer's all right."
-- Courtney Hambright
Smokestack and the Foothill Fury. With Black Weather Shaman and Los Bastardos Magnificos. 11 p.m., Friday, June 25 Poor House, 110 S.W. 3rd Ave, Fort Lauderdale. Admission is free. Call 954-522-5145 or visit poorhousebar.com.