Snow Beats Schieffer In “Battle of the Bands”

In the standing room only crowd at the National Press Club, Tony Snow and “Beats Workin’” defeated Bob Schieffer and “Honky Tonk Confidential” (in an applause vote) and took home the “Crawlin’ Kingsnake Trophy,” a beautifully hideous four-column foot and a half tall trophy with a coiled snake resting on a rock.

More photos (by Carrie Devorah) and details after the jump…

HTC opened the night with an instrumental, and then Bob made some remarks and they played a set of songs from the new CD. Their first song was “Long Shot Love,” and then Schieffer unveiled (he called it the world debut) of a new song, “A Dark and Stormy Night,” which he said was inspired by Snoopy’s unfinished novel. And, of course, “TV Anchorman” was performed.

Tony played flute, sax and guitar with Beats Working — their first two tunes were Chuck Berry tunes, and they also played “I Feel Good,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” “That’s What I Like About You,” and a Jethro Tull tune (“Bouree,” based on a Bach piece. Tony really shone on that song with his flute-playing). Skunk Baxter helped them out big time on “China Grove,” a song made famous by the Doobie Brothers (of which he was a member).

After the vote, the two bands joined for a reprise of “Little Lulu” and “Sister Hot Stuff,” with Tony on tambourine and Bob on the cowbell. Mike and Skunk Baxter traded guitar riffs, and the bands got the audience to split itself between singing “Little Lulu” (left side of the room) and “Sister Hot Stuff” (right side of the room).

Bob Schieffer was an anchorman to the core, reading his patter of a notepad at his feet. His cowbelling (which was ballyhooed) was limited to a couple of clangs.

Both Schieffer and Snow have endured cancer and the event raised funds for the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library.

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