The Honky Tonk Pounders are a German rockabilly trio featuring Gunnar Fick of the Ringlets Trio. They were formed in 1996 but this is only their second release, so you can see this guys take their time when it comes to go into the studio. Actually only five songs are totally new. Ten of the fifteen songs here have already appeared on a 10” mini album but it’s good to have them on cd format. The result is a solid set of 15 originals with varied styles. The backbone of this collection is made of wild and mean rockabilly (Devil Bop, Rockabilly Pearl), with some country ballads (Sea Of Tears and You’re The One with a steel), Gene Vincent styled rockabilly (Hot Rod), neo Rockabilly that takes you back to the Ringlets Trio days (Boom Boom), boogie (Bad Hair Boogie that features a piano), blues (6th Street Rumble).
Their influences comes from the classic rockabilly masters (Burnette, Perkins) as well as today’s bands : Freight train Running shares a similar riff to Deke Dickerson’s Wear Out The Sole Of My Shoes, I Know That You Love Me strongly made me think of Big Sandy’s Thru Dreamin’ and you can hear a Derailers influence in Bad Luck.
Fick whose prowess on the slap bass with the Ringlets Trio never ceased to amaze, proves he’s also a very good guitar player and the other two members provide a strong rhythm.
All of these contribute to make a highly enjoyable album.

Fred "Virgil" Turgis