Get Up and Dance! Various Artists. Rhythm Bomb Records

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rock

Until this little jewel popped through in the post Blabber’n’Smoke had never heard of Rhythm Bomb Records. Turns out they’re a bijoux record label based in Hamburg and London and they specialise in rockabilly and roots music. They’re not a reissue label, instead they scour the planet (and yes, we said planet as they haul in artists from as far afield as The States, Australia and Europe) looking for the best in current rockabilly and associated music. In addition they produce many of the records they release in a few select recording studios (you can see a list here )  creating a “house sound” and there’s not many labels you can say that of these days. Many of their releases (on vinyl and CD) are in very limited editions and they obviously take pride in their graphic art, some of the cover art is droolingly wonderful.

Anyhow. Get Up and Dance! is a mighty fine package and a very fine introduction to the label. A five disc CD set it contains 125 songs and after having spent a fair amount of time listening to it we can confidently say that there’s not one ounce of filler in here. Each and every song is well worth listening to even though we weren’t familiar with any of the dozens of acts who perform. The discs are themed, Perfect For Parties, Boppers, Strollers, Jivers and Slow Down, the artwork (designed by Henrique San) is cool, perfectly capturing the moods of the music.

As for the music, well it’s steeped in the fifties as you might expect. There aren’t any notes other than song titles and artists so apart from a few covers we recognised (such as George Jones’ You’re Still On My Mind, delivered here by the Rob Ryan Roadshow, Good Rockin’ Daddy from Billie & The Kids and several others) many of the songs are probably originals. They’re all delivered with an authentic feel, there’s no polish here but all are expertly recorded, a perfect (and perhaps mono) rush of sound. It’s nigh on impossible (and unfair really) to pick out the best or favourite song here. Suffice to say that there are hi octane rockers, fuzzy garage belters, slappin’ bass acoustic snappers, bluesy harp driven hollers, hiccuppin’ country rock, pile driving blues rockers, horn parping goonsville, twangy instrumentals and spoony romantic nocturnes. All steeped in historical melting pots such as New Orleans, Texas and Memphis. All great.

Get Up and Dance! is limited to 300 copies so if you want one head here 

Here’s a couple of songs from the collection…

 

 

 

 

Tami Neilson. Dynamite!

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We’re all used to the UK being somewhat behind the times when it comes to the Antipodes what with them celebrating New Year when we’re just getting out of our beds on 31st December. Well, in the case of Dynamite! we’re several months behind as this album was released in New Zealand around a year ago but is only now getting a UK release. Tami Neilson is garlanded in NZ, winner of their version of the Grammies on four occasions plus several song writing awards, not bad for a Canadian girl who grew up as part of her family’s country/gospel road show before moving down under after marrying a New Zealander.

Anyway, Dynamite! is a dynamite album, retro tooled from the cover art to the music to capture the bygone era of Sun Records and gutsy singers such as Wanda Jackson and Patsy Cline as Neilson delves into rockabilly, country and soul with some panache, a down under Imelda May indeed. The ten songs here are all top notch. Neilson can sound ferocious, sultry, sassy or menacing as required while the band and production nail the sound. Big boned guitars, velvety pedal steel and rattling percussion with country fiddle here and there are all bundled up in a glorious noise that reeks of valves and old time radio broadcasts.

The album opens with the defiant clarion call of Walk (Back To Your Arms) with Neilson walking on the wild side as she defies family wisdom and goes back to a bad boy’s embrace. With its bluesy riff and sinister guitar it evokes images of lurid pulp fiction covers of the fifties. Come Over is a thrash of a song that is like a shot of adrenaline to the soul amplifying the likes of Brenda Lee to the nth degree. The following Texas is a reprieve as Neilson shifts into country mode with ease, the song a brilliant recreation of early sixties honky tonk country music and there’s more country on the loose limbed Honey Girl which has some rootsy fiddling and excellent fingerpickin’ guitar. Whiskey and Kisses is another country song but here we’re in saloon bar territory as Neilson is joined on vocals by guitarist Delaney Davidson for a tearstained lament in the best George & Tammy tradition. Neilson shares vocals again with Davidson on the dramatic Running To You which is a driving romantic narrative in the vein of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra or Calexico on The Ballad of Cable Hogue and which sends shivers up the spine. As if this were not enough Neilson offers up some tin pan alley/Brill Building melodrama on the beehived and pizzicato pop song that is Cry Over You. It would be remiss not to mention the title song which is in a similar vein to Walk (Back To Your Arms) but here the guitar really sparks and burns as the drums pound and Neilson sings with a vengeance. Absolutely brilliant.

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The Kingmakers. Last Night In Nashville.

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The Kingmakers are yet another Canadian group who have picked up the baton of Americana and carried it over the 49th parallel. However unlike the majority of acts we’ve reviewed here who delve into bluegrass, singer/songwriter musings or country music The Kingmakers are unashamedly rockabilly and proud of the retro tag that comes with this. So proud in fact that they’ve recorded in the Sun Studios in Memphis in the past and on this, their third album, shifted to Nashville to record the album at Cowboy Jack Clement’s studio, Clement being the man who recorded and produced much of Jerry Lee Lewis’ Sun output. In addition they’ve persuaded The Jordonaires to sing on a few of the songs while JM Van Eaton, Jerry Lee’s drummer joins in on the fun.
First thing to say is that this is great fun. Pump up the speakers and pretty soon it’s difficult to stay seated as they run through some amped up rockers and swingingly good fifties teen toe tappers. With only one cover, Van Eaton’s Memphis In ’55, their songs, mainly written by bass player Steve Donnelly, have an authentic touch that we’ve not heard since The Blasters announced their mission to reclaim American music. Indeed the opener Well Well Michelle and Johnny Green could sit comfortably on a Blasters album while Beale St. Memphis TN Morning After Blues, a deliciously loose and slinky blues number has the Alvin brothers stamped all over it. To show however that they are no mere copyists the band have a fine zydeco influenced number in Women and Weather while Prom Night Car Crash is a great Johnny Tillotson type death song. Great fun.

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