The 2006 Niagara Motorcycle Rally will take place July 6-9 at Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls, USA. The event will feature live music, a tattoo contest, the Miss Niagara Rally pageant, a wet t-shirt competition, the Banana Olympics, a custom bike contest, a swap meet, a 10am bike blessing at the Town of Niagara Park—and if that’s not enough to make you want to let out a Rebel Yell, you’ll have two chances to catch “the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy” himself, David Allan Coe, at the Roaring Thunder Saloon at 9pm Saturday and 7:30pm Sunday. The quintessential country music “Outlaw”—he was in fact a member of the motorcycle club of the same name—Coe spent a good deal of his youth and young adulthood behind bars. Rumored to have spent time on death row for killing a fellow inmate who propositioned him for oral sex—it’s unclear in what capacity—you could say Coe has never been a “have a nice day” kind of guy. A Rolling Stone interviewer famously questioned the veracity of the murder story and Coe responded with a song entitled “I’d Like to Kick the Shit Out of You.” His catalog includes many profane songs that were put on X-rated discs sold only at shows and on the Web. This material has attracted as many fans as it has repulsed. And yet he has written many great songs, including the Johnny Paycheck smash “Take This Job and Shove It,” and he supplied the following immortal lines to the Steve Goodman classic “You Never Even Called Me by My Name”: “I was drunk the day my Ma got out of prison/ and I went to pick her up in the rain/ but before I could get to the station in my pick-up truck/ she got runned over by a damned old train”—thus completing the perfect country & western song.

Thursday, July 6-Sunday, July 9. Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls, USA, 1900 Military Rd. Advance all-day David Allan Coe Saloon pass $20. Visit www.niagaramcrally.com for more info.