Put Your Cat Clothes On
This has been a real labour of love for Brian Setzer, better known for the hugely successful Stray Cats during the 80's and the lesser known Brian Setzer Orchestra of the 90's, with Rockabilly Riot he has recorded a tribute to Sun Records. Collecting together twenty three of his favourite rockabilly songs from the Sun Label and recording them with his own band Setzer aims to bring rockabilly to a new audience.
If you're too young to remember the Stray Cats and have no idea what rockabilly is, it's basically songs that sound like 'Blue Suede Shoes' (now surely even the kids have heard that?!). In a nutshell this is music that came out of America during the 1950's and was the catalyst for the whole of rock and roll as we know it today. The 70's had punk, the 50's had rockabilly and the two are intrinsically linked. Whilst many punk songs from 1976 sound tame by todays standards you have to remember that at the time there had been nothing like it before and so it was when rockabilly first appeared, for the 1950's these were wild songs indeed!
Whilst recognising its place in musical history I admit I'm not the biggest fan of rockabilly, after seven or eight songs they all start to sound rather similar. Having said that there's no getting away from the fact that this is an extremely well produced album. The musicianship is exceptional throughout from all quarters, particularly when you take into account that Setzer and co used nothing but authentic 1950's guitars, amps, microphones and the bass is the old upright style. Setzer pretty much nails every solo ('Flatfoot Sam' being a prime example) and his vocals are gritty but tuneful and have just the right feel for this kind of music.
Some of the tracks are well known songs such as 'Blue Suede Shoes' but others have been plucked from relative obscurity which makes this a good insight into the world of rockabilly. Unfortunately there just doesn't seem to be any getting away from the fact that rockabilly is rather limited in its scope, these songs being plucked from the mid 50's are pretty standard formula stuff and twenty three songs is either going to totally convert or totally abhor the first time rockabilly listener.
Setzer's enthusiasm and thirst for authenticity command respect and he has done an excellent job in presenting rockabilly to a new generation, whether or not anyone is prepared to listen or to look beyond this collection remains to be seen.