Seattle Weekly, Brian Barr Dec 20-26 2006 - The Weekly Wire - Calender of Recommended Events
"THE TALLBOYS
You can usually spot fiddler Joe Fulton all by his lonesome on Pine Street in the Market. Same goes for banjo picker Charlie Beck and his clogger/rhythm guitarist partner Charmaine Slaven. On their own, they brighten the Market busking scene with their old-timey Appalachian stylings. They are accomplished, yet unpolished, which is exactly the way old-timey tunes should be delivered--well-schooled and raw. When they come together as the Tallboys, with bassist John Hurd, the group performs at the level of well-known revivalists the Old Crow Medicine Show and the Hackensaw Boys. And these groups are the closest comparison because there is a punk edge to the Tallboys. Ever time I see them, it stirs something inside my hillbilly soul and I can't sit still. And when Charmaine puts down her flat-top guitar to start clogging like Loretta Lynn's mother in Coal Miner's Daughter, it's all over for me. I'm stomping my feet, hooting, and clapping as if Seattle was a by-God coal holler. With Hammond and the Whisky Swillers. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave NW, 789-3599, www.tractortavern.citysearch.com $8, 8 PM, following Holiday Bizarre."