Music: Latest serving of Greasy Greens slips into Cajun's

— Three decades down the road, The Greasy Greens continue the band's mysterious game plan of occasional musical entertainment in central Arkansas. Unlike most bands with such an extensive if inconsistent career, The Greens are a band that has never made a recording.

There may be other groups that have been around longer without a recording to sell, promote and rally around. But if there are, some of us who have been around as long as The Greens cannot pinpoint them. The Greens are content to play when their various schedules permit, usually when some charitable or acceptable political organization comes calling, asking for a favor.

The band is now led by Ron Hughes, who took over trying to herd this assemblage of musical cats after group founder Patrick McKelvey wandered away like an elder cat might do. Some bands might take the departure of their central figure as a sign that it's time to break up, but The Greens see things differently.

When President Clinton was finishing his term in office, someone decided to organize a Greens concert for him as a surprise birthday party on the White House lawn, so off The Greens - some of them - went to Washington.

Determining who is a current band member is frequently a function of whoever shows up for rehearsals and then at the show. Jobs and parenting must first be attended to, before fun can enter the picture.

As for which members are the longest-serving, the husband-wife team of Sheila and Joe Kuonen surely take the prize. I once wrote the Kuonens were in on the founding, and a crotchety friend of mine let me know that they were not actually there, but had missed it by going off to the restroom or concession stand or something technical.

As Jimmy Stewart said in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the truth gets in the way of the legend, print the legend." Or something like that.

Many are the musicians who have come along and beena Green, however temporary. Space and memory do not permit naming them all. Already one member of the lineup pictured above will be unable to make tonight's show. Steven Winter will be otherwise detained, with Andy Griebel, who is a member of The Groan-Ups, taking Winter's seat at the piano.

The Greens trace their origins to a mixture of Eureka Springs and the Art Farm. Some members were living a carefree, hippie existence in the mid-1970s when the band formed. Eventually most members at the time made their way to central Arkansas and set up shop at the Art Farm, a Little Rock collective of artists.

Through the years, The Greens have specialized in theme shows or costume parties, as when the band played at the Little Rock Zoo and dressed up as the members' favorite animals while urging its fans to do the same. Other shows were tied to celebrations of seasons or full moons.

THE GREASY GREENS

8:30 p.m. today, Cajun's Wharf,

2400 Cantrell Road, Little

Rock

Admission: $5

(501) 375-5351

Weekend, Pages 70 on 08/17/2007

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