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western swing - Page 3

The Starliters – Stop Kiddin’

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the Starliters - Stop Kiddin'
the Starliters – Stop Kiddin’

El Toro3023
Come On Stroll – Don’t Wanna Fly Back Home – I’ll Do It Every Time – I’ll Never Be Your Man – I’m Not A Kid Anymore – I’m Wasting My Time – It’s All Your Fault – Little Grass Shack – Long Gone Train – Once Again With You – Take And Give – Tennessee Local – The Honky Tonk Dream – This Chick Drinks More Than Me – Where My Little Love Has Gone – Who Who Boogie

There’s not that much Italian bands, but quantity doesn’t matter, quality does. And you’ll find quality with the Starliters. Featuring members from the Tribal Bops, this combo has, since the mid 90’s established a solid reputation with releases on On The Hill and Tail. With 16 tracks and 9 originals, their latest release is loaded with excitment, joy and first class musicianship. You’ll find a stroller (the opening track), two wild and frantic rockers (Don’t Wanna Fly Back Home and I’m Wasting My Time), hillbilly boogie (Who Who Boogie and Tennessee Local sung by drummer Frank who is very close to Tenneessee Ernie Ford; both featuring guest Jerry Boogie on piano), western swing (Cindy Walker’s It’s All Your Fault, the excellent This Chick drinks more than me), a ballad (Once again with you) and a BR5-49 type of song (Honky Tonk Dream) and some excellent covers (especially Johnny Horton’s I do it everytime). Icing on the cake,  Rockin’ Bonnie joins force to sing duet on the classic Take and Give.
Available at El Toro
Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Cow Cow Boogie – Somewhere Down The Line

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cowcowboogieRhythm Bomb
Somewhere Down The Line – Home Cookin’ – Cash On The Barrelhead – Track 49 – Steam Heat – Rain – Sleep With One Eye Open – Ain’t No Friend Of Mine – Love To Live – Heart Stays Broken – Wild – She’ll Be Gone – Caravan

The world needs more band like Cow Cow Boogie. Why? Because they are cool, but even more important they don’t seem to care about boundaries . Led by the powerful voice of Deborah their lead singer, the band blends together elements of different styles and make them work to create their own distinctive sound by merging a blues harp, a rockabilly guitar, a western swing steel and a predominant slap bass. Their drummer adds his own touch by playing shuffles with brushes, drum rolls ala Fever or banging his tom toms like a wild papoose.
In the end, the songs range from blues with a hillbilly beat to rockabilly with a blues feel and all the combination allowed by this line-up with a touch of jazz and some 60’s girl groups  feel thrown in for good measure.
Definitely cool!

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Swinging Hayriders – the Walls Keep Talkin’

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swinginghayridersVintjarn records – VIN027 – 2014
Heart Attacks / Eatin’ Right Out Of Your Hand / You Better Wake Up Babe! / Great Big Needle / Skylark / (Don’t Roll Those) Bloodshot Eyes / Fan It / Cowboy Stomp / Cow Cow Boogie / Bring It On Down To My House Honey / Welcome Mat / Blue Skies / Sick, Sober And Sorry / I’ve Taken All I’m Gonna Take From You / The Walls Keep Talkin’

The Swinging Hayriders are a six-piece band from Sweden. The line up consists of Maria Stille on vocals, Peter Anderson on steel, Mats Bengtsson on piano and accordion, Johan Ek on guitar, Ulrik Jannson on double bass and Patrick Malmros on drums.
As Dave “Pappy” Stuckey puts it in his laudatory liner notes, Maria’s voice brings to mind other belles of the West like Carolina Cotton or laura Lee McBride. The bad is equally good providing solid and inventive musicianship with tight arrangements with twin guitars (Anderson shows he assimilated the styles of the great masters of the instruments, old or new like Jeremy Wakefield) and, last but not least, swing (don’t laugh, too many so called western swing band are just rockabilly band with steel and fiddle). Recorded by the magic fingers and ears of Axel Praefcke and Ike Stoye at Lightning Recorders in Berlin, the sound is top notch.
If, old grumpy that I am, would really try to find a flaw to this album, it would be the lack of original material. Their set consists of well-know classic from Hank Penny, Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, the Light Crust Doughboys as well as a couple of jazz standarts thrown in like in the good old days (Blue Sky, Skylark). But it remains a minor flaw compared to the excitment this record gives.
Last thing: it comes in a superb digipack designed by Chris Wilkinson of the Zazou Cowboys.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Sidewynders (the)

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the Sidewynders - let's go sparkin' with...
the Sidewynders – let’s go sparkin’ with…

The Sidewynders – Let’s Go Sparkin’ With…

Rhythm Bomb – RBR5788 – 2014
Lyin’ Baby – Heart In A Daze – Salty Dog Blues – Fancy Free – No Shame – Knock On Wood – Mad At You – Dry Run – Closer & Closer – Every Girl’s Heart – The Blues Don’t Care – She’s Got It Made – She’s Alright With Me

Rhythm Bomb launched its Los Angeles branch with two releases that will be hard to top: the Frantic Rockers and this album, Let’s Go Sparkin’ with the Sidewynders.
The line-up remained unchanged since their debut album except for the addition of Brian “Shorty” Poole of Dave’n’Deke Combo fame on steel and double bass. The band rips through a 13-song-half-an-hour set of mostly originals ranging from Sun inspired Rockabilly to hillbilly bop with fine harmonies and a bit of western swing in between with superb interplay between Ramon Espinoza on guitar and Poole on steel. Cervantes sings with his heart (and a bit of his guts too)  while Carlos Velazquez provides a solid beat but not too heavy.  Danny Angulo (Rip Carson, Omar) guest on three tracks on second and baritone guitar.
Perfectly recorded by Poole and Wally Hersom for two songs it’s a killer from start to finish!

Fred ‘Virgil’ Turgis

Dave Stuckey & the Rhythm Gang

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Dave Stuckey - Get A Load of This - HMG
Dave Stuckey – Get A Load of This – HMG

Dave Stuckey & the Rhythm Gang – Get a Load of This!

HMG 3010 [2000]
Brand New Love ~ You Better Wake Up Baby ~ They Did The Boogie ~ Nobody’s Sweetheart ~ I’ll Take My Old Guitar ~ Pick-A-Rib ~ Whose Honey Are You ~ Coyote Blues ~ You Shoulda Thought Of That ~ Lookin’ Around ~ Kansas City Kitty ~ Hitch My Wagon ~ Some Of These Days ~ Beauty Is As Beauty Does

This album is as close to any Western swing band from the golden era as you can get today. As a true lover and connoisseur, Dave Stuckey (formerly of the Dave and Deke Combo) gathered an impressive ten-piece band featuring Jeremy Wakefield on steel, Whit Smith and Dave Biller on guitars, T. Bonta on piano, Elana Fremerman and Eamon McLoughlin on twin fiddles, Stanley Smith on clarinet, Bob Stafford on trombone, Lisa Pankratz on drums and either Kevin Smith or Jake Erwin on bass. Together or separately, this fine aggregation have played with Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson, the Lucky Stars, Kim Lenz, the Hot Club Of Cowtown, the Asylum Street Spankers, High Noon, andRonnie Dawson (and more). Impressive, isn’t it? Needless to say, they swing like hell. This is the perfect vehicle for Dave Stuckey’s effortless and relaxed vocals (à la Jack Teagarden).

The set list displays the band’s ability to blend the old and the new. It features covers like Adolph Hofner’s I’ll Keep My Old Guitar, Benny Goodman’s Pick-A-Rib, Johnnie Lee Wills’ Coyotte Blues, and standards like Whose Honey Are You, Nobody’s Sweetheart and Some Of These Days, made popular in Western swing by Leon Selph, Bob Wills and Milton Brown. But it doesn’t stop there. The album also boasts five of Stuckey’s originals that are so good it’s hard to tell whether they’re from 1946 or 2000, showcasing the band’s unique sound and ability to keep the Western swing tradition alive.

Billy Horton’s flawless production is the cherry on top, adding to the confusion (there’s no need to say it’s been recorded live in the studio). His meticulous attention to detail and commitment to capturing the band’s energy and authenticity in the studio are evident in every track.

If you don’t dance to this record, you must be dead!

davestuckey_dinahDave Stuckey & the Rhythm Gang – Dinah ep

Goofin records GREP213
Woah Babe – Dinah – Twin Guitar Special – Did Anybody Mention My Name?

The songs of this ep were recorded during the same sessions that gave “Get A Load Of This”. Woah Babe! and Dinah are first rate western swing. Biller, Smith and Wakefield have plenty of room to express themselves on Bob Wills’ Twin Guitar Special. The last song is a swingin / rural bop version of Dave and Deke’s Did Anybody Mention My Name with superb twin fiddles reminiscent of Spade Cooley. Great.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Read the interview with Dave Stuckey here.

The B-Stars

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the B-Stars - Behind the Barn With
the B-Stars – Behind the Barn With

The B-Stars – Behind the Barn With

Rust Belt Recordings – RR004
Ink Free Baby Of Mine – Drunk On Whiskey – Duckin And Dodgin – Texas Boogie – Left It All Behind – Women And Wine – Pretty Baby – Back Up Buddy – Sweet Little Things – Walking Home Alone – Trouble Free State Of Mine – Broken Down And Blue

A particularly strong debut for the San Fransisco based combo. This five piece band (Greg Yanito – guitar and vocals; Eric Reedy – string bass and vocals; Bill McKenna – electric guitar; Mikiya Matsuda – steel guitar; Billy Zelinski – drums) rips through a set a good ol’ country music. Both Yanito and Reedy sing and compose – and they know how to write songs that sound like little classics – which also keeps the set varied. You’ll only find two covers, Gene O’Quinn’s Texas Boogie and Carl Smith’s Back Up Buddy, Smith being an obvious influence on the band.
Carl Sonny Leyland sits in and plays piano on four tracks adding a good dose of country boogie and even rock’n’roll (Pretty Baby) to the mix. There’s also some country swing (Duckin’ and Dodgin’), a bit of Bakersfield (Women and WIne, Sweet Little Things) and a superb Hank Williams influenced number (Trouble Free State Of Mind).
It is tastefully produced by Lee Jeffriess and you can hear his touch on some steel guitar/guitar arrangements reminiscent of his work with Ashley Kingman in the Fly Rite Boys.
If Carl Smith, Hank Williams, Merrill Moore, Wayne Hancock, Big Sandy are sweet words to your ears, be sure to add the B-Stars to your list. And it’s not only a pleasure for your ears, but also for the eyes as it comes in a nicely designed digipack.

More infos at http://thebstars.com/

The B-Stars - West Coast Special
The B-Stars – West Coast Special

The B-Stars – West Coast Special

Rust Belt [2012]
Careful Baby – Still Waiting – King Of Fools – My Window Faces The South – Another One Tomorrow – Time Is Money – When The Darkness Turns To Light – Chicken Fried – One More Beer – Revolution 45 – No Work Blues – Honky Tonkin’ Rhythm
San Francisco based honky tonk/hillbilly swing band the B-Stars have seen some changes since their debut album. They return with a refurbished line-up and a new platter full of hillbilly rhythms. They remain true to their main inspirations, saying Honky Tonk heroes of the 50’s and early 60’s (from Hank Williams to Carl Smith) but they also add a good dose of western swing to their set. It generally works pretty though I’m a little less convinced by their cover of My Window Faces the South. Whether it’s the production or the arrangement, it sounds a bit too “modern” for my tastes and closer to Asleep At The Wheel than Bob Wills. But that’s a minor flaw and they have a majority of solid originals and the musicianship is trong, one of the best exemple being the interplay between the guitar and the steel on Still Waitin.
Available on 10″ vinyl and cd.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

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