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Rockabilly - Page 19

Kick’em Jenny

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Kick'em Jenny - Untamed
Kick'em Jenny - Untamed
Kick’em Jenny – Untamed

Kick’em Jenny – Untamed

Blue Lake Records BLR-CD 13
Stressed up – Take Me down – Don’t Bug Me Baby – Maybe You don’t care – The Slide – Rockin’ Machine – I’ve Got Love if you want it – There’ll be no teardrops tonight – Untamed – Raw Deal – I’ve done my time – I ain’t gonna be around – I can’t do without you – Pink Elephants
If you ever went to a rockin’ weekender recently, you probably have met a wild blonde girl with a sandpaper voice, a blue guitar on one hand and a glass on the other, playing and singin’ on the car park or jammin’ with a band. You have experienced the phenomenon Kick’em Jenny. Try to figure Wanda Jackson, Paul Fenech, Josie Kreuzer and Wildfire Willie all rolled into one person. Sounds weird, uh? But you’d better listen.
She started to make her name a couple of years ago and her two songs on the comp’ Lake Rattle & Roll caught the attention of every wild rock’n’roll fans (and even conquered those who like softer rockabilly like me). « Stressed Up » proved to be very popular (for good reasons) among DJ’s around the world. Juan from Blue Lake quickly understood he had a one of a kind talent. He held a second session to complete the first one and here’s at last a full album by the volcanic girl.
And as you can imagine the result is a bunch of raw and savage songs (five from Jenny’s pen), some covers and a couple of slower numbers like the haunting “Take Me Down” (imagine a ballad given the Kick’em Jenny treatment with one kind of jungle atmosphere) and on the hillbilly side “I’ve done my time”. The thing is that Jenny has no other equivalent in her female counterparts and more generally on the rockabilly scene.
As usual with Blue Lake, a movie clip is included (you can watch it on your computer) showing the sessions, and proving that Juan deserves his place in heaven for his patience.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Root’n Toot’n

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Root’n Toot’n - Raw & Uncut
Root’n Toot’n – Raw & Uncut

Root’n Toot’n – Raw & Uncut

SKCD02
Mandy’s On A Diet – Rockabilly Baby – Walking The Floor Over You – Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain – Cry Cry Cry – Greenback Dollar – Four In The Morning – There’s A New Moon – Tom Dooley – Turn Around – Putting On The Style – Turn My Picture Upside Down – Itchin’ For My Baby – Candy Kisses – Little Red Wagon – She’s My Baby
This British trio consists of well known members on the English scene coming from bands like The Sureshots, The Skiprats, Cat Scratch Fever and Country Cattin’. They play hillbilly bop and rockabilly with a touch of skiffle here and there with spare instrumentation (two guitars and a bass with sometimes a washboard or a ukulele) and though their set mainly consists of covers, they manage to stay true to the originals and bring some fresh air in this timeless classics in the same time. And believe me, it’s not an easy task with Cash’s Cry Cry Cry. On Faron Young’s “Four In The Morning”, you’d swear to hear an unreleased Elvis Sun master with Cliff Gallup guesting on guitar that stayed on a dusty shelf for years.
Talent knows talent and you’re not surprised to see that Chris Cumming, from the now legendary Riverside Trio, is involved in the production of this album. Well played, varied, fun, pleasant, superbly produced, boys (and girl) let me tell you one thing, you won a new fan.
Get it at http://www.rootntootn.co.uk/

Root’n Toot’n - Making Hay
Root’n Toot’n – Making Hay

Root’n Toot’n – Making Hay

Big River – Your Cheatin Heart – Man Of Constant Sorrow – Wabash Cannonball – I’ll Hold You In My Heart – Cocaine Blues – Lord It’s Hard To Be Humble – Roly Poly – Mr Moon – The Words Of Love – Have You Ever Been Lonely – Battle of New Orleans – Deep In The Heart Of Texas – Oklahoma Hills – Goodbye Marie – You Are My Sunshine
Our favorite British hillbillies are back with a brand new 16 songs platter, all covers but one, the excellent Words Of Love. There’s no big changes or departure from their precedent release, but if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, as they say. You’ll find hillbilly, bluegrass, skiffle mixed with rockabilly (Malcom Yelvington’s Goodbye marie). Colin Mee is at ease on ballads like Eddy Arnold’s I’ll Hold You In My Arms but he can deliver strong uptempo numbers like Cocaine Blues.If Mee takes the lion’s share of lead vocals, Mandy sings too and gives a good rendition of Jim reeves’ Have You Ever Been Lonely. She also plays clarinet on Deep In The Heart Of Texas one of my absolute favorite, that made me think of the novelty western swing style of Bob Skyles and His Skyrockets. I’d love to hear a full album like this. A highly entertaining album.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Country Cattin

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Country Cattin’ - Movin’ On
Country Cattin’ – Movin’ On

Country Cattin – Movin’ On

Cool & Crazy Record s CD005
Call Me Lonesome – Honky Tonk Girl – Hangmans Boogie – See You in My Dreams – Pinball Millionaire – I Got a Problem – Blue Days Black Nights – Hocus Pocus – I Believe in Love – Convicted – Dear John – If Your Ever Lonely – Blues Come Around – Mobilin’ Baby – Just Because – Movin’ On
With this album Country Cattin’ can stand proudly next to The Riverside Trio or The Rimshots, who were, in my humble opinion, two of the best. Hillbilly boogie, honky tonk with a bit of rockabilly, what more could you ask for? Dave Brown’s voice is excellent (it sometimes reminds me Johnny Horton), Johnny Vee’s guitar skills are also amazing. From rockabilly licks to Chet Atkin’s (I’ll see you in my dreams), he knows them all! Don’t forget the slap bass which is the backbone of the band as they are drumless and the “newest” member Chris Cummings (from the Riverside Trio) on steel guitar. He also recorded this album at his Riverside Studios. A very good album that I warmly recommend, despite the cover design I’m not too keen on.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Jeff Potter – Great Big Beat

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Jeff Potter - Great Big Beat
Jeff Potter – Great Big Beat

El Toro Records – ETCD 8010
She’s Got A Great Big Beat – All Right With Me – When The Moon Comes Up – Golden Roll – I Can’t Believe – She’s So Explosive – Time On My Hands – Somebody Loves You – High Octane – Kinda Lovin’Man – Let’s Go To The Moon – Modern Busy World – Get Some Rest – Some Of The Time – The Romp

Jeff Potter (who plays piano, guitar, drums, organ) with the help of a cast of fine musicians (including Betsy-Dawn Williams and guitarist extraordinaire Graham Tichy) offers here a very good self penned album full of piano led rock’n’roll (“High Octane”, “She’s Got A Great Big Beat”), doo wop (“She’s So Explosive” with excellent bass vocal from Tichy),ballad (“I Can’t Believe”, “It’s A Busy World”) and a couple of instrumental thrown in for good measure “Golden Roll” (a tune with a strong Bill Dogget’s Honky Tonk feel on which Potter plays organ) and the rockin’ (with a 60’s vibe) “the Romp”. You can hear the influences of Jerry Lee Lewis (of course), Fats Domino, Buddy Holly (on “Some Of The Time”) and more modern bands like The Blasters. Truly a great rock’n’roll album.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Number 9 Blacktops – Cool On My Right

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number-9-blacktopsPart-Cd 6108.001

Steel Belted Radicals – Kentucky – Berlin – Big Rig – Monster Truck Takeover – Frankfort Avenue – Queen Of Hearts – Rock ‘N’N Roll Band – Come On Already – Out Of Sin – Boomland

Produced by Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti and with a bass player proudly sporting a Motorhead t-shirt, don’t expect the Number 9 Blacktops to play doo-wop.
This is raunchy and straight-in-your-face rock’n’roll with big guitar (Skinny Jim their singer-guitarist is endorsed by Gretsch), warm and round bass (electric, that is) and hammer-pounding drums. Imagine a hard hitting rockabilly band ingested, digested and regurgitated by ZZ Top, add a dash of surf (there’s a couple of instrumentals), a bit of early Reverend Horton Heat and a solid dose of country-punk ala Jason and the Scorchers and you’ll get a close idea of the sound of this album. And the whole thing is rounded in less than 30 minutes. Yes, this is Rock’n’roll! Highly recommended though clearly not for the purists.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Slick 49 – Go Wild With Me

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Slick 49 - Go Wild With Me

Slick 49 - Go Wild With Me
Slick 49 – Go Wild With Me
Western Star WSRC045
Go Wild with Me / Got Rockin’ On My Mind / Cattin’ Baby /The Stars Don’t Look So Bright / Jumpin’ Round / Prove You Wrong and Do You Right / ’41 Dodge / Riverside Jump / Shake ’em Up Rock / Sweet Rockin’ Baby / Still I’m Gonna Love You / Don’t Shoot Me Baby / All That’s On My Mind / Tear This World Apart / Hot Headed Mama.

Slick 49 are a classic drummer less rockabilly trio with a sound as authentic as you can dream. The pair made by the acoustic guitar and the slap bass lays down a strong rhythmic giving lead guitarist Nigel Mc Corkell plenty of room to express. It’s obvious that these guys have listened to Charlie Feathers (notably on the hiccupy Still I’m Gonna Love You) and most generally to the Meteor label (Bill Bowen’s Don’t Shoot Me Baby).
Slightly different is “Tear This World Apart” that sounds more modern, even neo-rockabilly at places. But different doesn’t mean bad though maybe a question / answer backing vocals would have added something to the tune.
Globally, I wouldn’t use the word “wild” to describe them but tense, always menacing to explode. All in all with eleven original songs and only four covers, Go Wild With Me makes an excellent debut album and as usual you have the Western Star quality in term of production and sound.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

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