Rebecca Porter has Velocity.
Video by JB Fitts Photography
We’ll all say “I saw Rebecca Porter at Durty Nelly’s on this night”.
Mike Frazier spoke for all of us from the stage when he called her and her guitar back up to play a second encore between his sets.
He was right and we will.
There is nothing more exciting than witnessing, in person, a young artist who has velocity. Rebecca picked up the guitar during covid and decided to get serious about her songwriting and making her run. With a highly anticipated first full length album “Roll with the Punches” coming in August on the heels of very successful EP and Single releases, that’s zero-to-the-precipice of breakout success in 4 short years.
Let’s break down how she is doing it.
First and foremost, Rebeccas has that voice. Now, singing has vexxed Old Hank for the better part of his life, but I’ll try to do a professional job here describing someone so gifted. Yes, she has incredible range. Yes, she can hit notes most singers can only wave at as they fly by. Her ability may be approaching that 3 octave range that only elite singers can hit. I believe that like a lot of great singers, she learned in the church. (The only interesting singing at Old Hank’s church as a boy was scary people speaking in tongues, but I digress).
She has a vibrato so natural and unforced it makes my Fender Deluxe Reverb weep in jealousy. The purity of her tone is crystalline–the tube amp analogy holds here as well. Rebecca seems to have a pair of warm RCA 6V6’s driving those vocal cords. They ain’t no mud in there to cover anything up. Where other voices go solid state brittle, Rebecca just pours honey.
But her capacity for expression, f’ me.
Excuse old Hank while he gets a hanky because a voice that can tell a story like this always turns him into an embarrassing puddle of goo (I’m listening to “Shadow of Doubt” as I write). She is in command even when she is sustaining a very delicate note or thought. She is powerful when she drops the hammer. She may be even more powerful when she doesn’t. That’s rare.
If this woman wants you to experience joy or anguish or anger or anything in between along with her, son you are gonna feel it. And if you don’t you better check to see if you are dead.
It’s in her writing.
When you are being taught to write well, by someone who knows what they are talking about, you are gonna be told to write visually. In short, write with your eyes, not just your heart or your brain.
Porter’s songwriting has been described as cinematic. She paints portraits and landscapes, not just people and places. I think I have a clue as to at least part of the how and why.
Rebecca has said she is a fan of Western Cinema. If you ain’t versed in the genre let Old Hank ‘splain. For those of us who worship these movies, the absolute pinnacle of the art is Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood’s “Spaghetti Western” canon. Yes sir, the best Westerns were made by an Italian dude halfway around the world. (We Americans did finish the discussion with one of the best Westerns of all Time, Clint’s “Unforgiven”, but the die for that movie was cast in Italy years before).
The Good The Bad and The Ugly (Tarrantino’s favorite film) is perhaps the pinnacle of Leone and Eastwood’s achievements with its unforgettable score by the immortal Ennio Moricone. Seen it or not, go ahead and click on the image and watch and listen. 3 bad dudes have chased a fortune in gold across the carnage of the American Civil War, found it in a desert graveyard, and proceed to shoot it out to see who keeps it (can you hear the sound of a spring reverb amp making that crash when it gets knocked that puncuates the track, again and again?)
Those films were shot in 35mm Techniscope which gives the movie that wide, wide frame and scope as well as the gritty film texture and soft color. Sound familiar? Porter writes/sings in Techniscope. The influence on her wardrobe, band graphics and photography is unmistakable. And undeniably smart.
The women in her songs are gritty and tough and worn. They have put up with your shit for too long but they will outlast you. They may suffer depression “The shadows on the wall aren’t my friends, my level of depression just depends” but her expression of that sadness is a balm for the rest of us.
The quiet strength in “Shadow of Doubt” is staggering. Most protagonists in most songs get revenge (think “I shot Kate McKannon” or “His head was found in a grinding wheel” or “I never thought justice would come from a (Taurus) Judge under the seat”).
Rebecca simply takes back what is hers.
“I feared my love wasn't good enough
His pleasure resided in my pain…
…Well I cried out and I felt forsaken
Beaten down for the last time
Then the Lord reached out and He gave to me
The strength to take what was mine”
Maybe “taking back what was hers” resembled what Hardy’s character in Wait in the Truck did, maybe not. But letting that response be ambiguous is so powerful and shows a writer’s restraint well beyond her years.
And Rebecca, if anyone’s pleasure ever resides in your pain, Old Hank and the boys will ride in hard with sidearms drawn and there will be no ambiguity to our response.
OK enough empty threats and dusty philosophy. Here are the basics to the show. Rebecca played all her best. She gave us The Laundry Pile, Happy Go Lucky, Honky Tonks ain’t for Heroes, Clockin’ Out, The Lonely Song, the single off her upcoming album Payday Loans, and of course Shadow of Doubt in the encore between Mike’s sets. She covered the Stones’ Sweet Virginia with Mike.
Her stellar band, The Rhinestone Roses consists of Ben Schlabach on bass, Jacob Briggs on drums, Perry Blosser on fiddle and mandolin and Jason Summer on Pedal Steel. They are the real deal and clearly ready for the high speed ride that is coming.
One final note. And I’m sure Bazz will touch on heart in a minute. But they say you can tell a person by their friends. If that is so, Rebecca is in good shape. On this night, the whole Tonk community came out to support her. Buckbilly Deluxe and the boys, Ramona and her Holy Smokes and Koda, Marie and Brian to name a few. It seemed like everyone in the bar was a musician. They sang and danced and yelled and just made it a very special and fun night. And one man has done more to build this community than anyone. We talk about him too much in this blog but he is always there, booking, running the board, greeting and making everyone in our special little corner of Honky Tonk Heaven™ feel more love than they deserve. And that’s in between playing show after show and giving us song after song.
OK Bazz, I’ve gone on long enough! Give us the skinny on Mike Frazer and his huuuuuge heart!
Give me the ball Old Hank!
On April 24, 2024, Shenandoah Valley’s own Mike Frazier had part of his brain removed. After sudden spells of nausea and seizures, he underwent a right temporal craniotomy, a procedure that uncovered a lesion, later diagnosed as Focal Cortical Dysplasia, a congenital brain defect he was unknowingly born with.
Exactly one year later, on April 24, 2025, Frazier released his seventh album, April Days…a stunning collection of songs shaped by his experience and written during his recovery. It’s a powerful document of healing, resilience, and reflection.
Just a few weeks later, on May 17, Frazier brought that same spirit to Durty Nelly’s. Backed by his band, he delivered a performance packed with heart, truth, and defiance…the kind that grabs you by the soul and doesn’t let go.
At one point, Frazier shared the story of his surgery with the crowd, mentioning that his neurosurgeon, who happened to be in the audience that night, told him he had listened to Mike’s music throughout the procedure. After Frazier woke up, the surgeon told him, “You sound like Neil Young.” And he does. There’s an unmistakable honesty in his voice, a raw sincerity that can only come from surviving something so life threatening and scary.
His set was full of vulnerability and conviction, whether reflecting on his own health journey or standing in solidarity with others. When he played World Without Empires, a powerful call to free Palestine, or closed the first set with a roaring cover of Woody Guthrie’s All You Fascists, we felt the purpose behind every lyric. “All you fascists are bound to lose,” he sang, and you believed him.
Since 2022, Frazier has called the Pacific Northwest home after relocating from Winchester, Virginia with his wife, Steph. But his roots still run deep here, and you can feel them in his songwriting…his storytelling, his presence, his community.
That sense of connection was on full display Saturday when Frazier invited the immensely talented Rebecca Porter to open the show. She calls him one of the kindest, most down-to-earth people she’s ever met. And you could see that love flow both ways: Mike sang along to every word of Rebecca’s set, then grabbed Steph to dance in front of the stage.
Just over a year ago, Mike Frazier was in a hospital bed, recovering from brain surgery. Today, he’s singing, writing, and dancing…and radiating love and purpose in every note.
And on Saturday night, Hanky’s were needed by all.
Keep the Beat,
Bazz
Nighty Night,
Old Hank
