EARLVILLE - Wammo is a spanker. So is a guy named Sick and another who goes by the tag, Nevada. Along with the other four members of the Asylum Street Spankers, the trio of inventive handles will take center stage Saturday at the Earlville Opera House as part of their 2006 cross-country tour.

The Spankers’ different kind of sound has blown in from Texas and will open at 8 p.m. at the East Main Street venue. According to EOH Executive Director Patricia Lockwood-Blais and several other reviewers, the band belts a unique sound, sports a look that is all their own and has a stage presence like few others.

“This band is unique in many ways. They take inspiration from American music of the 1920’s and 30s, but throw a hillbilly jazz, jugband twist on it and apply a wild and bawdy mindset to the lyrics,” Lockwood-Blais said.

The band began playing together in 1994 when, as their Web site states, Christina Marrs and Guy Forsyth met self-described cultural instigator, poetic provocateur and irresponsible drunk Wammo at a “booze and hallucinogen-fueled party at the Dabbs Hotel in Llano, Texas.” A night of spanking, or playing vigorously and proficiently, their instruments by the river meant the birth of a band. According to the group, the addition of five more musicians from the largest state in the 48 meant a quick conquering of Austin and the beginning of touring the north country.