December 2015

Stardevils Trio – s/t

Kat Tone Records SD0004 [2008]
Rosalita – Bee Bawlin – You AIn’t Nothin But The Blues – $$ Bag Woman – Kitty Kat Bop – Cynthiana – Raw Deal – Biscuit Eatin Baby – Thought I Knew Blue – Hungry For Your Lovin’ – I Miss Marie – Run My Baby
The Stardevils are a classical authentic rockabilly drummerless trio that hails from Kentucky. Buck Stevens have played with them and it’s a reference good enough for me.
They write most of their material which is also always a plus for me. This is a relatively short album which is another quality  especially for a rockabilly album. The opposite either means that there are too many songs (and it’s hard to keep a level of quality on 20 songs) or the songs are too long (I don’t believe in 6 minute rockabilly tunes). Next to Sun and Meteor inspired songs you can find some latin influenced (Rosalita) and a bit of hillbilly bop too. The musicianship is excellent. Frank Turner provides a solid backbone on the slap bass and perfectly fullfill the bass and percussions duties (think Kevin Smith) and Jim Ohlschmidt plays superb guitar licks (and most of all they don’t sound like you’ve heard them hundreds of tiumes before). Lance Kaufman is an accomplished singer too, knowing when to hiccup (and when not) and adding some yodel to spice things up.
If you like Wayne Hancock and the Starline Rhythm Boys, this guys are sure to pleease you.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis