Stage Costume worn by Billy Bratcher of The Starline Rhythm Boys

This dashing outfit was the stage costume of Billy Bratcher, bassist and songwriter extraordinaire whose work, especially with the Starline Rhythm Boys, helped to jumpstart the now bustling honky-tonk scene in Vermont. Honky-tonk music is a branch of “high-lonesome” country music, often with electric guitar, string bass, and steel guitar. It gots its name in the late 1800s as the hillbilly music of Texas and Oklahoma.

Formed in 1998, The Starline Rhythm Boys received acclaim and attention not only for their musicianship but also for their unique and energizing stage presence. Dedicated entertainers, they had high standards not only for their performance, but for every element of the audience’s experience. This included exquisite attention to a Western style of visual presentation, exemplified by Billy Bratcher’s stage costume.

Photo by Matthew Thorsen, from the Sound Proof exhibit at the Museum of Vermont Music History.

On the importance of dressing well, “I think you owe it to the crowd to give a presentation that is professional and sharp,” said Bratcher. “Your aim is to look better than your audience. At least, that’s what a real professional musician should think, I believe. Look better than your audience, and portray an image of being ‘uptown’… maybe you’re not even that, but you can create a facade of Hollywood cowboy or Nashville star. Clothes are important.”

Bratcher grew up in Bennington, Vermont and was raised listening to country music, rockabilly, and reggae. Johnny Cash and Elvis Prestley were big names in his early listening, as well as the Clash and the Ramones. He began expressing his passion for rockabilly by playing bass with the band Visible Twitch, and was increasingly busy in the local music scene until eventually getting the opportunity to go on tour with Wayne “The Train'' Hancock, a “juke-joint honky-tonk” singer based in Austin. Hancock’s lineup didn’t include a drummer, instead calling for a highly percussive slap-bass style. Bratcher had been dutifully cultivating this style of playing, inspired by the bass sounds on Johnny Cash and Elvis records. He tested and honed these bass slapping chops on the road, starting in 1997.

A year later, joyful news brought Bratcher back home to the Green Mountains: He and his wife were expecting their first child! This new chapter in his life, he knew, required him to settle down and get off the road.

Back in Vermont, Bratcher reconnected with Danny Coane and ‘Big Al’ Lemory, both of whom he knew from previous collaborations in local rockabilly bands. Bratcher saw an opportunity for a new project. “When I came home I thought, Jeez, why don’t we get Al, Danny and me together, practice a little bit, whip up a couple tunes, and see what we got?” The merit and energy of this lineup soon became apparent. “Danny's driving rhythm on his old acoustic guitar, and my slappin’ bass, was just a perfect rhythmic foundation, and then the beautiful singing harmonies that those two do. It was natural.” Out of this “natural” collaboration, the Starline Rhythm Boys were formed.

The band’s snazzy visual presentation was an important part of this early excitement as well. “It was evident from the very, very first photo shoot that we cared about the clothes and the image,” said Bratcher. Between this and the band’s energizing instrumental synergy, it seemed certain that “this was going to be a first-class act.”

Sure enough, the band soon took off in popularity and became a legendary mainstay of the Vermont music scene. This kept the Starline Rhythm Boys’ act in high demand. “We were doing sometimes four, five gigs a week, when we got rollin’! We were also hired to play for Bernie Sanders when he ran for congress. We would play his campaign events.”

This explosion in popularity for a honky-tonk band was unprecedented in Vermont. At the time, there simply wasn’t a honky-tonk scene. “There was nobody doing what we were doing” Bratcher insists. “Absolutely nobody. Groups came along after us.”

The scene looks very different today; Vermont is rich with honky-tonk music and a rotating bill of bands come to Radio Bean in Burlington every week for ‘Honky-Tonk Tuesdays.’ Much of this can be attributed to the major success of the Starline Rhythm Boys and the infectious energy that they brought to the Vermont music scene as musicians and performers.

The jacket in Bratcher’s stage costume caught his eye at the Katy K. store, Ranch Dressings, in Nashville in 1997. “It was just a flashy, amazing jacket, with musical notes and rhinestones, that fit the mold of what we were trying to represent.” Said Bratcher. The jacket was also a fitting addition to the Starline Rhythm Boys’ visual presentation because Katy K. — Katy Kattelman — the New York City and Nashville designer, was a celebrated outfitter of country stars. “Through the years, clothes designers like Nudie Rodeo Tailors, Manuel Cuevas, and Katy K. have designed the very best for western performers,” said Bratcher. “The Starline Rhythm Boys would do their best to emulate heroes like Earnest Tubb, Buck Owens, and Porter Wagoneer with like-minded matching western shirts and jackets.”

The pants belt from the Ranger Belt Company has wild west heritage, with a lineage that goes back to the mid 1800s. Pistols required sturdy leather belts and cowboys like the Texas Rangers responded to this need. They developed strong leather belts with clasps copied from the fittings on their horse tack, to hang their pistols from. They often wore two belts — one for their pants, and one for their pistol! A style of ‘Ranger belt’ emerged that has lasted to the present.

Fiesso is a trend-setting, high-style leather shoe brand from the Aurelio Garcia company of Miami Florida. The company was established in the 1960s by Aurelio Garcia, a Cuban immigrant with roots in high fashion Italian footwear. Fiesso shoes are hand-made in low quantities, with intense craftsmanship.

Original research and interview by Gideon Parker. Additional research by James Lockridge with assistance by Brett Sorbo.