Jim Bessman
The Mighty Weasels maintain storied Dr. Bop tradition in latest Wisconsin tour

The Mighty Weasels--Bob Kenison, left, and Al Craven, The White Raven
The Mighty Weasels finished their latest Wisconsin tour last Saturday night (July 14) at the Fox Lake Golf Club, an hour or so drive from Madison, where acoustic guitarists/vocalists Al Craven and Bob Kenison got their start some 50 years ago in the immensely popular Dr. Bop & The Headliners rock ānā roll show band--in which Kenison found lasting fame under the name Troy Charmell, Craven as Al Craven, The White Raven.
Craven was that bandās frontman, and still handles most of the vocal leads in the Weaselsānot to mention the clowning that made the Headliners so huge. Taking a moment to thank their nonexistent road crew, he barreled into āBlue Velvetā and a rapid-fire set of other oldies but greaties from the 1950s and ā60s, covering everything from āSummertime Bluesā and āMy Special Angelā to āSecet Agent Manā and āDown in the Boondocksā while switching from artists like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly to Jimmie Rodgers and Jay & The Americans--all seamlessly and always with good humor and all due respect.
Craven got his mostly age-appropriate outdoor crowdāthe stage overlooking the 18th greenāto clap along on āBreaking Up is Hard to Do,ā sing along to the chorus of teen tragedy classic āLast Kiss,ā mouth the words to āReturn to Sender,ā join in the falsetto āwah-wah-wah-wah-wonderā of āRunaway,ā yell out the answer to who sang āI Fought the Lawā (answer: The Bobby Fuller Four) and got all concerned in the mood with āThatās Amore.ā
If there was a sole showstopper it had to be āTeen Angel,ā another immortal teen tragedy/death rock masterwork, for which the White Raven pulled out all the shtick stops, reaching out to heaven in overwrought supplication. The song, incidentally, was long a Headliners staple, same with the setās āThe Book of Loveā and āChantilly Lace,ā as well as āThe Wanderer,ā which Kenison sang.
But the Weasels also threw in a few country crossover hits from the era, Craven varying his adaptable tone in approximating the likes of Conway Twitty on āItās Only Make Believeā and Roger Miller on āKing of the Road.ā Kenison likewise held his own on Johnny Cashās āFolsom Prison Bluesā and Millerās āDang Me,ā and while they slipped in a few more recent crowd-pleasers like āCountry Roadsā and āPeaceful Easy Feeling,ā no one complainedānot even those there who went back all the way to Dr. Bop & The Headliners' late '60s glory days.
Indeed, whether or not rock ānā roll is here to stay, as long as The Mighty Weasels are alive, at least as evidenced at the Fox Lake Golf Club, it will never die.
Snippets of Mighty Weasels songs