Rockabilly Riot

The "King of the Cats" at it again: the greatest all around guitar player ever, Brian Setzer, is set for the U.S. release of his latest project, Rockabilly Riot, Vol. 1: A Tribute to Sun Records on July 26.

This 23-song disc pays tribute to some well known and virtually unknown rockabilly songs from the library of Memphis' iconic Sun Records. What is rockabilly? Well Setzer describes rockabilly in the liner notes:

"…the musical bastard of rhythm and blues, hillbilly, country, gospel, and maybe even a little jazz sung by wild-eyed southern white boys with too much time and too little money just lookin’ for trouble."

Throughout his career as frontman for the Stray Cats, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and various solo projects, Setzer never looked at rockabilly as being frozen in time; rockabilly was a living musical form that he merely wanted to add to and popularize. So while Setzer has done covers of rockabilly classics before, mostly by Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, the approach was to treat the songs as old '31 Fords in need of being hot-rodded for the modern ear. The recording of "Rockabilly Riot" represents a departure for Setzer.

Traveling to Nashville to record this tribute with his regular drummer, Bernie Dresel, bass fiddle player Mark Winchester, and rockabilly pianist, Kevin McKendree, Setzer used recording techniques from the ’50s: vintage microphones, a rusty old water cistern for reverb, and no digital echoes to recreate the sound of the originals, an approach more akin to restoring a neglected ’55 Chevy to straight stock. Dresel also masterfully captures the elusive single-cymbal drumming style of the time.

The 23 songs include some well-known songs like Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" but also include the never-before-recorded, "Peroxide Blonde in a Hopped Up Model Ford" written by Gene Simmons (not the KISS guy). Another obscure gem is "Put Your Cat Clothes On," another Carl Perkins recording (never released by Sun) with Jerry Lee Lewis playing piano. Perkins and Lewis swap dueling guitar/piano solos in the original; Setzer and McKendree will no doubt recreate this epic duel.

Fortunately, the U.S. release on July 26 of "Riot" will be in time for some summertime enjoyment stateside, while in Europe it's already available. In fact Setzer is currently touring Europe to sold-out shows (rockabilly remains one of the American things still popular there) with his ad hoc combo, the "Nashvillians." So grab a copy "Rockabilly Riot" and have cool drink on the hammock, go for a cruise or get up and dance around the living room.

July 22, 2005