Baghdad boogie

Jack Knife & the Sharps are headed back to Iraq

The redoubtable local rockabilly outfit will be entertaining military personnel in Kuwait and Iraq from August 1st to the 15th. Owing to safety concerns they won't know their exact agenda until arriving overseas. "They don't tell us where we're going until we get there," says frontman Rick Hollister. "It's always been that way."

Jack Knife & The Sharps logged two military road trips last year, to the Balkans and then Iraq. (Here's a Q & A I did with Hollister last summer about the performances.) But this will be the band's longest journey yet. Hollister notes that, unlike military personnel, they don't get any time to acclimate to the heat upon arriving in Kuwait. They immediately have to push on to the first gig. "It's really a brutal hard thing to do," he says. "They just figure band people are made of steel."