El Toro Records ETCD 2039
Please Stop Cryin / Three Or Four Nights / How About Me, Pretty Baby / Too Much / Crazy Little Mama / Rock And Roll Rhythm / My Love Is Not For You / Pink Cadillac / Doctor For Honky Tonk Gals / Mister Moon / Burnin’ / Speed King / Slow Down Brother
Have you ever played the « what if… » game ? It’s quite simple. You take a situation and you imagine what would have happened if… I’ve got a good example for you « What if Johnny Burnette Rock’n’roll Trio had recorded one album at Meteor records ? ». You wonder why I ask this question ? Well maybe because the result would have sounded like Lucky Marcell excellent debut album.
This amazing quartet comes from Serbia and have released with Speed King one of the best 50’s sounding rockabilly album I’ve heard in years. Straight, pure and raw rockabilly from start to finish with just two detours : one for an excellent country ballad (Mister Moon) and another for a hillbilly boogie number with steel guitar (Slow Down Brother).
They’ve got everything, yes sir the whole package: solid originals, good choice of covers (Jimmy Johnson’s How About Me Pretty Baby, Sammy Master’s Pink Cadillac, Johnny Bond’s Three or Four Nights), superb musicianship, a natural sense for rockabilly (it never sounds like they’ve learnt it, you see what I mean, it comes naturally) and icing on the cake a great sound. If it wasn’t on El Toro I could have swear it came from Wild Hare Records or Willie Lewis’ Rock-A-Billy Records.
I could sing their praise all day long, suffice to say that if you dig real rockabilly played at the right tempo (who said that rockabilly had to be super fast?) Lucky Marcell and the Ramblin’ Three are the band for you.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis