Casino Scene: Rehab's 'Bartender Song' rises from the underground

Danny Boone (front), the founding member of Rehab in 2000, reorganized the band in 2005 after the original group split.

"Bartender Song (Sittin' at a Bar)," the current hit from Georgia hip-hop rock act Rehab, has had a long, halting trip up the charts.

Co-written by singer-songwriter Cody Chesnutt, the track originally appeared on Rehab's 2000 major-label debut Southern Discomfort. That album sold modestly well, and the band splintered a few years later, due in part, ironically, to drug use.

Danny Boone (front), the founding member of Rehab in 2000, reorganized the band in 2005 after the original group split.

But the song, originally known just as "Sittin' at a Bar," took on a life of its own. In a throwback to the way songs used to become hits, "Sittin' at a Bar" became an underground favorite on bar jukeboxes across the country, and its momentum kept building through the re-formation of the band in 2005 and the initial independent release that year of Graffiti the World. During one three-month span in 2007, iTunes sold 20,000 downloads of the track.

"The legs on that song are amazing," says Rehab's founding vocalist/rapper Danny Boone. "Just to have it keep on moving even when we didn't know it. We just got a call one day telling us it had almost a million downloads. Then next thing you know we were talking to Universal Republic."

On Saturday, Rehab performs at the Q 107.5 Jingle Jam at River Palace Entertainment Center in Sam's Town Casino. Hosted by Nick Lachey, the Variety Club fundraiser also features performances by synth-pop band Metro Station; Cash Money recording artist Kevin Rudolf; Bajan R&B singer Shontelle; VH1 stars Thriving Ivory; Florida pop punk band We The Kings; and Martin Johnson and Paul DiGiovanni of Boys Like Girls.

When Rehab's new label, a division of the Universal Motown Group, decided to re-release Graffiti the World this past summer, the band opted to re-record the song that got them there. The new version, now dubbed "The Bartender Song" -- the name given to it by fans -- is at heart the same seedy, un-P.C. tale of drunk driving and spousal revenge, a canny blend of hip-hop and Southern rock in the mode of Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker. But now the song comes in two flavors -- the original, explicit version with profanity, and a cleaned-up radio version.

There is also a new take featuring a guest appearance by Hank Williams Jr., a country icon whose rowdy persona seems a direct antecedent to the character in Rehab's song.

"We'd re-recorded it, and then I got a call from our management saying. 'What do you think about Hank Williams being on one of the verses?' " recalls Boone. "He was great. He's just one of those people, he walks in and he owns the room. He's just a bigger than life character, but at the same time he's down to earth. You can tell he's the loudest kid in the classroom, and he's having a damn good time, and when's he's not, he'll leave."

The success of "Bartender Song" has given a new lease on creative life to Boone, the Warner Robins, Ga., rapper who formed Rehab as a straight-up hip-hop group in the late '90s.

After the original group broke up, Boone went back to work at his hometown wing joint. Eventually he re-formed Rehab with original member Steaknife, a.k.a. Denny Campbell, and a crew of ace Georgia session players, including guitarist Mike Hartnett (Outkast, Fergie), the winner of BMI's 2008 Pop Award for songwriting.

Now Steaknife and Boone are working on a side project, as is vocalist Demun Jones. And all the members of the band are preparing a follow-up to "Bartender Song."

"I've got a little computer, and I'm working on beats and lyrics," says Boone of the band's working style. "I'm not a very technical person. I can write songs and hear melodies, but I can't play guitar or work the equipment. ... Luckily with Mike and the rest of the band, I haven't had to do that because they're all great musicians."

Tickets to the Jingle Jam are $10.75 at the Sam's Town box office and through Ticketmaster.

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