In the years that followed, Jason released a few more albums with the Scorchers before becoming a father and putting out a few solo albums. Meanwhile, I became a dad myself, while maintaining an interest in the live music scene in St. Louis. Not too long ago, Jason's path crossed with mine again when he played a solo acoustic show for about 65 people at our house. Since then, we've stayed in touch and Jason has become a friend of the loose collection of musicians, fans and DJs all associated with KDHX and Twangfest.

So when Jason & the Scorchers announced a few tour dates surrounding the release of Halcyon Days, their first CD in 9 years, it only made sense for us to bring the band to Twangfest 14. In keeping the whole family/community feel of Twangfest, Jason and founding Scorchers' guitarist, Warner Hodges will be playing a loose, acoustic set at an afternoon reception and party at our house before their full-band, electric headlining set at the Duck Room on Saturday, June 12. Admission to this event is offered as a perk to those who purchase the deluxe Friends of Twangfest "Dan Pack." If you can't make it to the afternoon house concert, we'll see you at the Scorchers' full-throttle Twangfest finale later that night.

Their debut record (self-titled, released on Wow Dang Records in 2009) is simply delightful. Without anything close to virtuosity, Those Darlins simply create via pure energy and a love of old records. Though they never sound exactly like the Carter Family ("Mama's Heart" comes closest, with its slightly flat and unemotional vocal delivery and a nod to the Mother Maybelle Carter guitar approach) or Jimmie Rodgers (a rambunctious "Snaggle Tooth Mama" and a gutsy "Cannonball Blues" appropriate the swagger of the Singing Brakeman), the young women of Those Darlins have steeped their enthusiasm in the most iconic of country music forebears. But Those Darlins rock, maybe not loud and overbearing, but always with a belief that music is supposed to jump and push.

Like the Ramones, the Darlins share last names -- Kelly plays bass, Jesse plays guitar, and Nikki plays baritone ukulele -- and songwriting credits. This is a self-contained world in which boys are there to provide sex and rides home after a night of drinking, in which the implied threat is that nobody can tame the woman who knows what she wants, and what she wants is a good time. Even "DUI or Die," the most cautionary song about drinking to come along in years, suggests that lustful congress beats a ride in a paddywagon any day of the week.

The album jumps to a revved up start with "Red Light Love," marred only by the megaphone-imitating vocals but full of pep, enthusiasm, a neat harmony in the chorus, and as catchy and irresistible a hook as any neo-rockabilly song has enjoyed since the heyday of the Stray Cats. Then comes "Wild One," which shows that these women can conjure up a fairly normal country sound (if normal implies more raucousness than was available back in 1957, when this tune might have been a hit for, perhaps, Wanda Jackson). Later, we get a tour of the backwoods version of late-night binge eating after drinking too much in "The Whole Damn Thing," a love song to the chicken in the fridge. And the Darlins further revel in the joyous pop catchiness of "222," which has nothing to do with Karen Valentine's TV show, but instead plays on the inescapable hook of singing "Too too too" in unison as if this is a New Year's Eve ritual we've never known before.

Given the joys of listening to this on CD, one can only imagine the revelry of a Those Darlins live show. Hey, look at that -- they're playing Twangfest on June 11 so we can find out.