THE REVIVAL OF THE BIG CITY HONKY TONK   March 2010
At midnight on Jan. 16, 1920, when prohibition went into effect, the Rev. William Ashley (“Billy”) Sunday, the celebrated American evangelist famous for his unconventional pulpit shenanigans, was in the midst of his kerosene circuit campaign enjoining all backsliders to “get right with God” by “hitting the sawdust trail of repentance.”  The next day, Sunday conducted an elaborate mock funeral service for John Barleycorn, complete with a dejected devil in attendance as his only mourner, and Barleycorn’s “corpse” arriving in a special 20-foot coffin “on a train from Milwaukee”. Convinced that Barleycorn was the cause of all of the nation’s deficiencies, Sunday believed driving him from the land would also be America’s salvation.

On January 17, 2010, ninety years later to the day, Pupy Costello, himself a one-time notorious backslider, now a quietly retired C-list honky tonk frontman was visited by a series of powerful visions in which he felt a higher power commanding him to undo this injustice and restore the good name of old John Barleycorn. With only his limited and feeble powers of cognition as his guide, Costello taught himself scripture, made peace with his past, and emerged from the dark and troubling winter of 2009 a fully ordained minister, and a man on a mission. Like a strange cross between the return of Gandalf from the abyss and the release of Jake Blues from Joliet Correctional, Costello set about reuniting the shattered remnants of the Big City Honky Tonk.  Back with a vengeance and now on a mission from God, these days find him holding regular midnight John Barleycorn revivals featuring The Big City Honky Tonk as house band.

As a side note, the Big City Honky Tonk hold the world record for most drinking songs performed in a row, breaking their own previous record of 18, by performing 27 drinking songs in a row at Bockfest on February 12, 2010.

Spooky Noodle	Nearly buried alive under a pile of broken electronics, outsized only by the pile of disfunction next to it, Pupy uncovered Spooky Noodle in the basement of his 19th century farmhouse in near terminal condition. He was revived over 6 weeks with a steady drip of Pabst and Jameson, and forced to relearn all 90 strings of his big city guitar and steel arsenal. Aliases: Tiny Mintons, Steamed Taters, Peanut & Taters, Captain Tennille, Edtronics Hobbies: Guns, Guitars, & Hiding Out Shining Big City Moment(s): Pelting Pupy Costello in the head with a half-dead carp whilst hiding out. You can hire him to: Fix your amps and guitars.http://www.ed-tronics.com
Chief Offender Fanny Arbuckle	Once the proud proprietor of a successful barleycorn distributorship, the original dissolution of the band hit Chief Offender the hardest.  Surrounded by his band of Sin City harlots, he let his business slip away from him in a cloud of debauched antics. When Pupy managed to track him down, he was but a lowly diesel mechanic, covered from head to toe in grease.  Pupy lovingly cleansed him, and handed him back his old trusty bass, The Barleycorn II, convincing him to once again join forces to vanquish the anti-John Barleycorn factions once and for all.
Little Marty Liebowitz	Aliases: Ole Johnny One-Shot Filling in on drums since 2005 (until we find a real drummer), Little Marty Liebowitz is the green visor wearing CFO of the Big City. He’s also the CEO and the COO.  Ask anyone in the band virtually anything, and you are likely to be told “Uh, yeah, you gotta talk to Marty.”  That includes Pupy famously once telling the fill-in fill-in drummer that he’d done a great job and that he could “talk to Marty” about getting paid (Marty of course being the guy he was filling in for). He books the gigs, he hauls the gear, he rights the ship, he drives the bus, and he smooths it over with the clubs the next morning.  And of course he plays the drums, washboard, and gong. He’s little Marty Liebowitz.
Pupy Costello	Whether you call him Mr. Honky Tonk, or Mr. 11 O’Clock, the Reverend Pupy Costello is one hard honky tonking son of a bitch.  A fully ordained minister, not only will he play your wedding, he will perform the damn ceremony.  He’s probably the biggest reason the Big City Honky Tonk is the greatest band on earth before 11pm and one of the worst bands on earth after 1am. President, Pastor, and sole member of the Society for the Resurecction of John Barleycorn.Pre-Order your Cascade, Centennial, and Nugget hops for fall delivery from his hops farm before they are gone!