Grilling Bacon: The Bacon Brothers undergo the sixth degree

Steve Bornfeld

Friday, Jan. 5, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

Who: The Bacon Brothers. When: 8 tonight. Where: The Joint at the Hard Rock. Tickets: $20. Information: Call 693-5066.

Another actor who thinks he's a singer.

Have we learned nothing from William Shatner's Priceline.com commercials?

However, as the old saying goes: You can't judge an actor-singer by his cover tunes. "I have the same kind of skepticism myself when I think about an actor putting a band together: I tend to roll my eyes," Kevin Bacon says. He's another actor who put a band together -- the Bacon Brothers, fronted by himself and his singing sibling, Michael -- that will play the Joint at the Hard Rock tonight.

Eyes still, please.

"There's definitely two sides to it, though, because it's very tough for an emerging band to get even a hundred people to show up at a performance. We've been able to build a fan base on the fact that people come to see an actor play in a band. Hopefully they leave as fans of the music. It's also helpful in terms of people like yourself wanting to do an interview. I'm sure you get requests all the time from bands wanting to announce that they're coming to town."

Yes, we do. No, we don't fax over interview requests to their publicists, playing eager media suitor to the bar-band crowd.

Point well taken.

Welcome to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Vegas Version! In this edition of the wildly popular trivia game -- you know, where you link virtually every movie actor in the universe to Kevin Bacon through six steps or less -- we hook up a veritable Who's Who of Vegas (living and dead) to The Baconized One. It's easy -- we'll demonstrate: Wayne Newton was in "Vegas Vacation" with Juliette Brewer, who was in "Balto" with Kevin Bacon. Danny Gans was in "Bull Durham" with Kevin Costner, who was in "JFK" with Kevin Bacon. Liberace was in "The Loved One" with Roddy McDowall, who was in "The Big Picture" with Kevin Bacon. Elvis Presley was in "Speedway" with Courtney Brown, who was in "My Dog Skip," with Kevin Bacon. Can you file the Bacon Brothers in that Movie Stars Slumming As Rock Stars To Feed Their Ever-Undernourished Egos department? That club that includes Russell Crowe and 30-Odd Foot of Grunts (no kidding), Keanu Reeves and Dogstar, David Hasselhoff and Bruce Willis (under the nom de plume of "Bruno," no less)? Not quite.

The Bacons exude refreshing modesty: light on attitude, heavy on passion. Staying afloat for six years amid a sea of starry-eyed singer-songwriters, they seem slightly embarrassed by the advantage of Kevin's fame, as if detracting from the honor and purity of being Struggling Artists. They've released two CDs of their lyric-intensive, folk-rock-country-soul stews, not on a major label hot to exploit Kevin's karma, but on the small, independent Bluxo Records. A third CD is due in June. Last year took them through 90 concert dates, clearly beyond the realm of a movie star's vanity project.

And the demographically-driven, format-crazed radio market has yet to embrace them. "We get the most resistance from radio," Michael Bacon says. "That's the missing link in the progress I'd like to see the band make."

Tommy Tune (most recently of "EFX") was in "Hello Dolly!" with Walter Matthau, who was in "JFK" with Kevin Bacon. ("EFX" star-to-be) Rick Springfield was in "Hard to Hold" with Tracy Brooks Swope, who was in "The Big Picture" with Kevin Bacon. "At The Copa" star David Cassidy was in "The Spirit of '76" with Michael McShane, who was in "Balto" with Kevin Bacon. "At The Copa" co-star Sheena Easton was in "All Dogs Go To Heaven" with Jim Cummings, who was in "Balto" with Kevin Bacon.

Music critics have been ambivalent, as if caught between sensing the siblings' artistic seriousness and salivating over the chance to skewer an actor who dares wander onto their sacrosanct turf. The result: pans and fans.

Writing in Entertainment Weekly magazine about their debut album, "Forosoco" (as in FOlk-ROck-SOul-COuntry), critic Steven Mirkin commented that "brother Michael's production and instrumental polish keep the Bacon Brothers from becoming a golden throat celebrity embarrassment. Kevin does most of the singing, and his lightweight, John Mellencamp-style vocals are engaging. But without the star power, it's hard to imagine anyone caring."

However, critic Karen Bliss of Jam! Music noted that Kevin "has a voice of character, able to reach gritty lows, harmonious beauty and falsetto fun. He is an adept guitar player and adept frontman, chatting up a song or the audience without resorting to cheesy rockspeak or antics. Famous or not, this guy would have a record deal."

Siegfried & Roy were in "Vegas Vacation" with Juliette Brewer, who was in "Balto" with Kevin Bacon. Penn & Teller were in "Fantasia 2000" with Steve Martin, who was in "Novocaine" with Kevin Bacon. Tom Smothers was in "Kids Are Alright" with Steve Martin, who was in "Novocaine" with Kevin Bacon. Dick Smothers was in "Casino" with Robert De Niro, who was in "Sleepers" with Kevin Bacon.

Rocking together since their Philadelphia childhood, the Bacons cemented the act after pairing for a charity concert in 1994. Kevin may have the celebrity sheen, but older bro Michael packs the industry cred. Holding a music degree from Lehman College, he performed with the band Good News in the '70s before earning widespread respect for his scoring of films and TV documentaries (he snared an Emmy for his soundtrack to "The Kennedys").

Frank Sinatra was in "The First Deadly Sin" with Tom Signorelli, who was in "Sleepers" with Kevin Bacon. Dean Martin was in "The Young Lions" with Maximilian Schell, who was in "Telling Lies in America" with Kevin Bacon. Sammy Davis Jr. was in "Sweet Charity" with John Wheeler, who was in "Apollo 13" with Kevin Bacon. Peter Lawford was in "The Longest Day" with Robert Wagner, who was in "Wild Things" with Kevin Bacon. Joey Bishop was in "Mad Dog Time" with Diane Lane, who was in "My Dog Skip" with Kevin Bacon.

"My dream was always to be a singer-songwriter, and I did that," Michael says. "But I had a kid and was making absolutely no money at it, and that's when my family moved to New York and I got into scoring. I'm really proud of what I've put into it and what I've gotten out of it. But at the same time, the dream I thought I gave up I was able to reclaim when we put the band together. I'm one of those lucky people going through life completely creatively satisfied, without any of the 'Oh God, if only I could -- Oh, I wish I had done ...' "

Robert Goulet was in "Scrooged" with Bill Murray, who was in "Wild Things" with Kevin Bacon. Buddy Greco was in "Play It to the Bone" with Robert Wagner, who was in "Wild Things" with Kevin Bacon. Steve Lawrence was in "The Yards" with Charlize Theron, who was in "That Thing You Do" with Clint Howard, who was in "My Dog Skip" with Kevin Bacon.

Lyrical storytelling anchors Bacon Brothers tunes. Of the 15 songs on their second CD, "Getting There," the siblings penned 14 of them, all eschewing easy melodic hooks and repetitive riffs in favor of detailed narrative and specific stories -- such as Kevin's "Ten Years in Mexico," inspired by he and actress-wife Kyra Sedgwick's 10th anniversary trip, during which they were stranded by a hurricane.

Jerry Lewis was in "Cookie" with Tony Devon, who was in "Telling Lies in America" with Kevin Bacon. Debbie Reynolds was in "Wedding Bell Blues" with Illeana Douglas, who was in "Stir of Echoes" with Kevin Bacon. Phyllis McGuire was in "Come Blow Your Horn" with Tony Bill, who was in "Barb Wire" with Clint Howard, who was in "My Dog Skip" with Kevin Bacon. Desi Arnaz Jr. (of Boulder City) was in "A Wedding" with Jeff Perry, who was in "Wild Things" with Kevin Bacon.

"I love lyrics," Kevin says. "When I was a kid, a big part of getting an album was picking through the lyrics and trying to decipher what a song was actually about, getting some of the lyrics I might have missed while listening to it. Songs need both. If you sit down and read song lyrics, most of them are pretty horrible. They're not poetry. Songs need both. There's something about the way the words fit into a melody that makes it a song."

Rodney Dangerfield was in "Little Nicky" with Clint Howard, who was in "My Dog Skip" with Kevin Bacon. Rita Rudner was in "Gleaming the Cube" with Christian Slater, who was in "Murder in the First" with Kevin Bacon. Carrot Top was in "Chairman of the Board" with Rance Howard, who was in "Apollo 13" with Kevin Bacon.

The Bacon Brothers' sound, they insist, is dictated by evolution, not design. "Our first record was all over the lot," Michael says. "Our philosophy has been not to have a sound, but let the songs dictate what the sound would be. If the song had a country feel, we put a fiddle on it. If it had a rock feel, the guitar was dirtier. It's starting to have more of a sound that's our own, and the songwriting is getting more focused."

(Former Channel 3 anchor) Gwen Castaldi was in "Casino" with Robert De Niro, who was in "Sleepers" with Kevin Bacon. Wolfgang Puck was in "The Muse" with Greg Grunberg, who was in "Hollow Man" with Kevin Bacon. (Vegas-born porn star) Jenna Jameson was in "Private Parts" with Ali Marsh, who was in "Picture Perfect" with Kevin Bacon.

"In terms of the show, I'm much more of an extrovert, and Michael is much more of an introvert," Kevin says. "You can see physically that we're brothers, but we're very different -- definitely not twins. And Mike's musical style is more melodic, more romantic, more folky and classic. I tend to be more into rhythm and louder and just edgier." Michael adds: "People who see us live see two really different ways of treating the performance, but we really have the same musical values in terms of songwriting and arranging. Even though we don't always agree on those things, we have a lot of respect for each other."

Bob Arum was in "Play it to the Bone" with Robert Wagner, who was in "Wild Things" with Kevin Bacon. Mayor Oscar Goodman was in "Casino" with Robert De Niro, who was in "Sleepers" with Kevin Bacon. Sen. Harry Reid has a cameo in "Traffic" with Michael Douglas, who was in "War of the Roses" with Danny DeVito, who was in "Hoffa" with Jack Nicholson, who was in "A Few Good Men" with Kevin Bacon. Late Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun played himself in "Fever Pitch" with Bobby Jacoby, who was in "Tremors" with Kevin Bacon.

Rocker Bacon gets jazzed by something Actor Bacon never does. "The connection with the live audience is an energy dance," Kevin says. "There's no character between me and the audience. It's a very naked kind of creative expression. It's electric."

Steve Bornfeld, the writer of this article, once did a bit part on the soap "One Life to Live" opposite actress Mia Korf, who was in"Blood Brothers" with Falconer Abraham, who was in "The Air Up There" with Kevin Bacon.

That said, his life is now complete.

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