Slap Wore Out is a good old Southern expression that people use when they’re really, really tired. It does not, necessarily, describe the five veteran Columbia musicians who go by that name. OK, so the members of Slap Wore Out don’t bound around the stage like a teenage punk band, but they once did. And they’re bringing that same enthusiasm to their “eclectic acoustic” music today. “Rob and I played together in an electric bluegrass band in the early ’70s,” Jack McGregor said. “We had a pedal-steel guitar, electric bass. It was a wild band!” See, SWO does have punk-rock roots. Rob Turner, a Columbia attorney, plays dobro and Weissenborn guitar for SWO. McGregor sings and plays guitar and mandolin. His wife Debbie sings, plays some mandolin, and keeps the beat on a cardboard box. Elizabeth Cameron sings and plays the banjo, and her husband Mike slaps on a big ol’ upright bass. They all got together about a year and a half ago and discovered they had the same adventurous attitude about music. With a songlist that bounces from bluegrass standards to modern-rock tunes and a batch of enviable acoustic instruments, SWO quickly became known as an unpredictable performing unit. “We started with traditional songs and some of our original songs,” McGregor said. “Then we just started trying things. A Warren Zevon song. An old country song. Sometimes they’d work, sometimes they wouldn’t. It was like a dart board.” Songs that have stuck in the SWO songlist include a killer version of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and a swinging take on Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight.” “We’re trying to run the gamut,” McGregor said. “We’ve all played in different bands in different environments, and we’re trying to bring all that experience together.” Like we’ve said, SWO might not be as animated as punk rockers, but they still put on a lively show. “We share the same microphones a lot onstage, so that creates a lot of interaction,” McGregor said with a laugh. “We just love playing so much and love being together, it just comes out at the show.” SWO’s love of music is starting to come out in another way, too. Turner, McGregor, and Elizabeth Cameron are all fine songwriters, and they’ve assembled a batch of original tunes and begun work on the band’s debut CD. Sounds like these folks are far from being slap wore out.