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Wild Hare

Ryan Cain and the Ables / Chaotics

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Ryan Cain & the Ables – Cupid and the Devil 

ryan cain

Self released [2016]
Hepcat Habitat – Knots – Drinkin’ Wine Spodee Odee – Selfie Of Your Heart – I Call Bullshit – Tears Of Doom – Cupid And The Devil – Waltz Wrong With This Picture – Go Boy Go – Talk To Me – Keep The Change – Kill Devil Hillbilly

Released in 2016, Cupid and the Devil is the second album from Ryan Cain and the Ables after My pistol Rides Shotgun in 2012. Cain formerly played with Ryan Cain and the Chaotics, who had an album on Wild Hare in 2008. Brandon Elmore, who plays bass on this album, also played in the Chaotics.

The opener is a medium Rockabilly number somewhat reminiscent of Johnny Powers. 13 Knots follows. It features a Spanish guitar reminiscent of the Marty Robbins’ Gunfighters ballads like El Paso or Big Iron. Next is a cover of Sticks McGhee’s Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee, though Cain’s cover is obviously influenced by Johnny Burnette’s. This is not the only song that shows the influence of the Rock’n’Roll Trio. One can also hear it on Go Boy Go as well as the title track and I Call Bullshit, a frantic Rockabilly on which Cain almost ran out of oxygen.
But Cain has the excellent idea to keep things varied. Hence some songs lean more on the country and western side of things, like the Johnny Cash-tinged Keep The Change. Also, Selfie Of Your Heart is a superb country shuffle with a fiddle. And if the opening riff of Tears of Doom sounds like Tomorrow Night, the nasal voice and the fiddle firmly anchor the song in the hillbilly idiom. 
Two ballads complete the set Talk To Me and Waltz Wrong with This Picture which only lacks the Jordanaires to be perfect.
In a surprising manner, the album ends with a Surf instrumental, which is good but sounds a bit out of place.

If you’re looking for a traditional-sounding Rockabilly and Rock’n’roll album with country echoes, look no further, Ryan Cain’s Cupid and the Devil is perfect for you. It’s a perfect album, produced with taste and excellently recorded.

Fred ”Virgil” Turgis

The Helldivers

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The Helldivers - Starlight Rock’n’Bop

The Helldivers - Starlight Rock’n’Bop
The Helldivers – Starlight Rock’n’Bop

The Helldivers – Starlight Rock’n’Bop

Wild Hare Records.RB05001
Starlight Rock ‘n’ Bop – Real Live Doll Lucky Penny – True Blue Lover Lonesome Wind – Feel So Bad – Hot Rod Boogie – Tough Tops Gone – Yeah She’s Mine – Rhythm Gonna Rock You Street Angel House Devil – Jet Plane Jump – Up A Pole – Water Boilin’
Second album of another promising young american band. When punks decide to play rockabilly, the result is a band with a name of a second world war bomber and a very «angry» first album in 2004 «Down To Nickles and Dimes». This second one titled «Starlight Rock’ Bop» is much more authentic. It is funny to hear these young people who started with saturated guitars now backing to the past and sounding just like in «54-55». Because it is all about that; the fourteen pieces (with only one cover, the Joe Penny’s «Real Live Doll», another horse of the Wild Hare Records stable which was a formed part of Hank Williams «Driftin’ Cowboys») are recorded by the guitarist Dave Moore (in its studio New Hope of Berkeley Springs) on vintage material and sound fiendishly» fifties just like these guys have sold their souls to the devil ! Listen to the first eponymous piece and you will understand what I’m talking about; there is some Pat Cupp in it and it is not by accident if he signed the liner notes! Moreover it is Ace Brown (singer and guitarist) and Johnny Bones (double bass player) assisted by the young Eddie Clendening which has accompanied the «old cat» in Green Bay and will «set the table again» at the Hemsby weekender in October 2005.I recommend you the entire album and pieces like «True Blue Lover», «Hot Rod Boogie», «Yeah, She’ s Mine», «Up has Poole» «Water Boilin’» and especially «Rhythm Gonna Rock You» (What a good one!) will undoubtedly blow your top. If you do agree, I’ll offer you a beer on our next meeting !
David Phisel

V/A – Ain’t Rocket Science 101 & 202

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rocket202

rocket101Wild Hare Records WH06001- WH06004
Vol.1 : 1 Scotch Whisky 2 Gypsy Eyes 3 Minnesota Snow 4 Through With You 5 Red Lipstick on Cigarettes 6 Big Wheels Roll 7 Dear Old Dad 8 Crazy About Nancy 9 Doorbell Dreamboat 10 Buried Hopes 11 Cool It 12 Blue So Blue 13 Lovesick 14 I Want You 15 Its All Life 16 Live This Way 17 Tell Me Darlin 18 Honey Honey 19 Wined and Dined and Pocket Lined 20 Mrs Jackson 21 Why Cant You Be True 22 24 Hours a Day 23 So Untrue 24 Cant Keep My MInd Off Of You 25 Just Take Me Home 26 Feels So Good 27 Catch My Breath
Vol. 2 : 1.We’re Gonna Rock 2 Devil Doll 3 Let Me Be Your Baby 4 Let’s Rock 5 Give a Little Lovin’ 6 Have a Ball 7 Uptown 8 I’m Gonna Break a Heart 9 Epilepsy Betsy 10 What I’ve Got 11 Trouble Follows Me 12 Lonesome Trail 13 Hitch Hiker 14 Long Haul Trucker 15 Last Work In Lovin’ 16 Real Live Doll 17 Operation Complication 18 Slim Jim Sadie 19 Break Loose 20 Jambalaya 21 A Single Tear 22 My Puddin’ Pie 23 Loud Mouth 24 Midnight Train 25 My Love 26 I’d Want Your LOvin’ Anyway 27 Don’t Talk Back

If you are turtle, don’t try to catch this Wild Hare cause he’s running fast and .he ‘s got a double mission : “to help promote historic artists as well as promising new artists involved in the Rockabilly and Hillbilly Circuit”. Since Dave and Kiersten Moore founded in 2003 this label “of Rockabillies for Rockabillies”, they recorded historic talent such as Pat Cupp, Roc LaRue Ron Berry and Joe Penny, both present on this two “Ain’t Rocket Science” first class compilations but also new talents such as The Garnet Hearts, Thommy Burns,Jason Hoss Hicks, Amber Lee, Jerry King, Screamin’ Scotty and many more.
As announced by the owners of the label “no big city attitutes or corporate schemes here”, no “rocket science” “no tracking, no overdubs” but for sure some good ol homebrew rockabilly chemistry concocted by an ever-present Dave Moore (engineer, guitarist and member of the The Saddle Pals)
The 101 is a blend of smooth honky tonkin’ rockabilly sounds (The Saddle Pals) with some raw hillbilly songs as the ones composed by the 20’s and 30’s inspired Thommy Burns hepcat There ‘s even some Sun soundin’ with the veteran Ron Berry (listen to “It’s All Life” that could come right from the fifties Union Avenue studio) and the Steubenville Knight Jason Hicks “close to the Sun Elvis bone” melodic rockabilly
On 102 the starting mood is more on the rockin’ and rollin’ side with the terrific Amber Lee. That gal sure knows how to rock.! Jerry King and his assured strong voice that we already know with his Rivertown Ramblers is here with The Falls City Boys on a more hillbilly repertoire and sounds like an american Jack Baymoore. The legendary Hank Williams sideman Joe Penny sincere and true rockabilly is tremendous; “Real Live DollI” is a “real live masterpiece” and his Jambalaya rendition sounds like a real early fifties Cajun one popped up from the past. Screamin’ Scotty ends up brilliantly and frenetically this second compilation with a great “Don’t Talk Back” rocker.

Dave “Long Tall” Phisel

David Moore – The Hillbilly Stroll

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dmoore_small Wild Hare WH09002 [2009]
If you dig rockabilly music (which one can assumes as you read this lines) and especially 50’s sounding rockabilly the name of Dave Moore may be familiar to you. He’s the guy behind the excellent Wild Hare records label and has played on countless recordings (the liner notes say “43 professionnal releases with 29 different artists on 280 tracks!”).
This is, to my knowledge, his first real solo effort, including 12 self-penned songs on which he’s backed by Ryan Cain, Wendy Lebeau and Buck Stevens among others.
Some of this tunes have previously been sung by members of the Wild Hare roster like the Pat Cupp influenced “Blue So Blue” by Ron Berry, “Uptown” by Amber Lee and “You Better Leave” (appearing here in a very demo sounding version) by Buck Stevens.
Musically this is what you can expect – and love – from Wild Hare: a mix of vintage and raw sounding rockabilly with its feet solidly anchored in the hillbilly tradition, going from “Love Eternally” a country weeper in a Hank Williams vein to the frantic rockabilly of “I Do What I Want When I Want” all recording on vintage equipment that makes the Wild Haresignature sound.
A must have.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis