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Moondog music

Rockhouse Strutters

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Rockhouse Strutters – S/T

Moodog Music MOONLP2303
My Baby Don’t Rock – Look So Deep – Her Love Rubbed Off – Cruising – Mexicali Baby – Go, Boy Go / Poor Lucky Daddy-O – Little Bit More – Plantation Boogie – Sure To Fall – Mean Little Mama – Rock House

Rockhouse Strutters

The Rockhouse Strutters are a Finnish band formed by Maku Tuominen (Willie and the Wolves) on vocals, Jukka Kuitunen on guitar, Iikku Riepponen (Mike Bell and the Belltones) on double bass and Jouni Häyrinen on drums. The band has an excellent overall sound. One can feel that the quartet has worked hard to develop a personal sound and a style of its own somewhere between classic Rockabilly and a little more modern Rock’n’Roll.
What strikes you at first when you have the record in hand is the fairly high number of covers appearing on the track listing, no less than 10 out of twelve songs. One could fear that so many covers, some of which are very well known, could work against the group. And even if the Rockhouse Strutters miss their version of Her Love Rubbed Off (but it is impossible to go after Carl Perkins and the Cramps reunited), the group has enough style and personality to succeed in establishing itself and keep things interesting. As proof, listen to their excellent rock versions of Go, Boy Go and Sure To Fall, which offer a complete rereading of the original. In addition, they have the intelligence also to cover more obscure numbers and contemporary tunes (The Jive Romeros’ Look So Deep).
Added to this are their two compositions (Cruisin’ and Poor Luck Daddy-O), which give an overview of their talent for writing tunes. The band should have more confidence in themselves because these are two excellent songs, and the fact that there are only two of them is pretty frustrating for the listener (or is it a particularly crooked commercial manoeuvre to set the stage for their next album?)
Cruisin has Neo-Rockabilly accents, which suits their sound very well, and Poor Luck Daddy-O is more in a boogie-blues vein. So, in the end, it’s a good record that will give you an excellent time of Rock’n’Roll and we hope that the next Rockhouse Strutters album will be at least half composed of original songs.

Available here.

Ria and the Hi-Binders

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Ria and the Hi-Binders – Heart and Soul

Moondog Music MOONCD2203 [2023]
Heart and Soul – Give A Lonely Heart A Home – Sinful Man – Glass of Wine – Forgetting You – Gonna Take A Walk – Nothing To Me – Everlasting Love – Lottle One – Let’s Elope Baby – Bye Bye Baby – One Heart To Give

After a very successful single, Ria and the Hi-Binders return with their first full-length album, it consists of twelve tracks, including four written by Ria.
It would be easy to describe Ria and the Hi-Binders as the feminine answer to The Country Side of Harmonica Sam. Both bands draw their inspiration from the same sources, i.e. country music and honky tonk, as they were played in Nashville in the early 60s. But that would be pretty reductive and would diminish the personality and originality of Ria and her band. In addition, the range of the Hi-Binders seems wider because next to Honky Tonk tracks, there are incursions into Bakersfield and uptempo songs with a more Rock’n’Roll and Rockabilly inspiration, including Gonna Take A Walk (Phillip Atkinson), Let’s Elope Baby (Janis Martin), Everlasting Love (Barbara Pittman) and especially Nothing To Me, an excellent composition by Ria which makes us regret that she does not do more in this genre, and in which she gives all the power of her voice. Behind the singer, the group is perfect. The stripped-down rhythm section allows the steel and the lead guitar to shine throughout.

Moondog Records’ website

Ria and the Hi-Binders – Memory Mountain

Moondog Music MOONS2201 [2022]
Memory Mountain / Sinful Man

This Finish band was formed in 2020 and features Ria Korhola on vocals and guitar, Timo Kalijärvi on lead guitar; Jussi Huhtakangas on pedal steel; Jani Ahtiainen on drums and Lasse Sirkko on bass.
I guess you’re familiar with the rich Finish scene. In that case, those names aren’t unknown to you: Jussi Huhtakangas (aka Lester Peabody) is well-known for his work with the Barnshakers and Hal Peters Trio, Jani Ahtiainen plays with Mystery Train, Lasse Sirkko played with Whistle Bait and Uncle John Trio, and Timo Kalijärvi is well-known for his work with Mike Bell & the Belltones.
iss Korhola appeared on the excellent Fly Now! by Gona Lehtinen, showing a strong ability to go from mellow Jazz tune to jump blues.
Ria and the Hi-Binder are a Honky Tonk band aiming at an early/mid-sixties sound. The A-side is a cover of Wanda Jackson’s Memory Mountain. Of course, Wanda’s original was great but a tad overproduced with choir and violins. Ria’s version is more stripped-down, more rocking’ too, led by her confident voice, ideally supported by the steel which with the piano drives the song.
They adapt Bill Browning’s Sinful Woman into Sinful Man for the B-side. Once again, the singer is very at ease while Huhtakangas and Kalijärvi trade hot licks supported by an impressive rhythm section.
Good news, I’ve heard that the band is in the studio to record their debut album.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis