October was just a classically hectic month musically, with almost too many previews and reviews. Now that I have a few minutes, I want to share some items that struck me while I was spinning in the reporting vortex.

Indie music co-op?

I think Beth Deel has a lot of guts. Even though Deel, a myscoper.com co-owner, is technically competition, I admire her more all the time.

She wasn't afraid the other week, when indie singer/songwriter Griffin House was playing to a room full of drink-and-talkers at Fork in the City, to step onstage and tell the audience to "shut the f--- up" and listen to House's music, which wasn't cranked high enough to drown out the crowd noise. By then Deel and others had formed a decent little arc by the room's indoor stage, and after her request, most of the people actually did shut up -- for a song or two, at least.

Deel knows something about volume. As a partner in the Southwest Roanoke performance space The Water Heater, she has hosted a bunch of indie acts, many of which played acoustically and with a public address system that posed no real danger to tender eardrums. The venue has tried louder bands, but that's tough on the building's residential neighbors, Deel said.

Still, lots of volumizing bands want to play there. And Deel said she can appreciate that, so she decided to throw out the following idea.

If anyone is interested in gathering to discuss the idea of an indie music cooperative venture, to set up club-keeping in a volume-friendly, mosh-resistant room and host bands and other performers without hope of anything other than scene-building, contact Deel.

I think it's a great idea. Sure, it would take some stick-to-it-iveness and organization, but it would be nice to see a steady room for punk, metal and other indie acts to play late and play loud.

Reach Deel via 314-0994, beth@upupperiscope.com or The Water Heater, 813 5th St., Roanoke, 24016.

Rockabilly redux

This year's Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, held Oct. 24 at Ferrum College, gave some old Southwest and Central Virginia rockabilly acts a chance to get up and relive some great times from their 1950s and 1960s youth.

The festival's Rockabilly Stage sock hop was tied in with "Virginia Rocks: The History of Rockabilly in the Commonwealth," an exhibition now up at the college's Blue Ridge Institute and Museum.

Roanoke band Don Day & The Knights took the stage minus Frank "Don Day" Akers, who died in 2007. Guitarist Bob Carroll, who is no longer playing guitar -- bassist/singer Rex Hale joked that Carroll "has arthritis in his eyes" -- stood onstage, smiling at other band members as he watched them perform.

So no, it wasn't quite the same as old times, but the band's set got a little spark when onetime Roanoker Billy Joe Burnette took the stage. Burnette, who made a minor splash in 1961 with the song "Marlene," went on to write the trucker-culture crossover hit "Teddy Bear" for Red Sovine in 1976.

Burnette, who lives in Nashville, didn't get any serious rehearsal time with The Knights, so he didn't sing "Marlene" or "Stomp, Shake & Twist" -- both of which are featured on the exhibition's companion 2-CD set. But he did sing Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes," even tossing in a couple of Presley-style hip-shakes. His voice is still robust and he still hits his high notes.

"I'm a rock 'n' roll man till the day I quit rollin,'" he told the audience of more than 100. Attendance for the entire festival was about 8,000, according to Blue Ridge Institute director Roddy Moore.

Brookneal's own The Dazzlers were loud and too trebly, but they had a lot of fun onstage as the headliner. The CD set also features tunes from The Knights and The Dazzlers.

Sock hop opener Switchblade Suckerpunch is actually a group of younger guys keeping the rockabilly alive, punk style.

The Roanoke trio doesn't play too often but is a good live act and has opened dates for the likes of Scott H. Biram, Wrenn Mangum and Hamburger James. Check out the music at myspace.com/switchbladesuckerpunch.

Critiquing the critique

I don't often find myself taking much issue with the national music reviews we run on Saturdays. But I know for sure of a recent review that missed a mark.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Nick Cristiano, writing about the latest Delbert McClinton record, "Acquired Taste," thought that McClinton's performances on "When She Cries at Night," and "Wouldn't You Think (Should've Been Here by Now)" showed the singer at a "thin line between a voice that's full of weathered character and one that's merely shot, and for the first time he comes close to crossing it."

Not buying it.

On Oct. 3 at Big Lick Blues Festival in Elmwood Park, the 68-year-old Texas blues and soul man showed that he isn't even close to crossing it.

The man's voice is amazing. McClinton can hit those high, sandpapery notes that make you think he's going to blow it out, but then he pulls it right back into control. And he did it over and over that night, with his band, Dick 50, rocking it behind him on old and new McClinton tunes.

If he sounded that way on those tunes, my money says that's the way he meant to sound.