Moot Davis - Moot Davis Little Dog Thick Of It Now - Highway Kind - Jug Of Wine - Whiskey Town - Thanks For Breakin’ My Heart - Last Train Home - Nothin’ - One Of A Kind - Halls Of Smoke & Wine - Stay Gone Bear & The Essentials - Two Time Fool Sotz For Bein’ In Love - Your Heart Won’t Love - Livin Doll - A Heartache To Follow - Two Time Fool - Golden Rocket - Baby Bye Bye - Not Another One But You - It’s Just About Time - You Coulda Been The Lucky One - A Honky Tonk Mind When Long Tall speaks about country music, he will never evoke Toby Keith or any unspecified junk and phony cowboy with a white Stetson or romantic long hair who sings the same old ditties gauged for mainstream radio or “perfect for line dancing’” music (okay ol’ pal, but do you have to speak like an indian chief in a 50’s western? - Virgil). No, Long Tall loves the spiritual sons of George Jones, Frankie Miller, Eddie Noack, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernie Schaffin, Ray Price and, of course, Hank Williams. Singers with guts and a big sound, a kind of male delicacy where men are not afraid to cry but always with sincerity and heart, but never with a back thought of marketing! That’s why you’ll read about people here like Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson, Ronnie Hayward, James Hand, Johnny Dilks, Tom Armstrong, Hank III, Phil Hummer or Roger Wallace. There are two guys each releasing a first album that I will like to tell you more about: The first one is Moot Davis and the second one is Bear and his band the Essentials. Moot Davis is one of today’s talents whose obvious references are Hank Williams, George Jones, Webb Pierce and Buck Owens but also the eighties honky-tonkers like Clint Black or Alan Jackson (during his «Don’ t Rock The Jukebox» period) and, of course, Dwight Yoakam. Moreover he’s produced and accompanied by Pete Anderson, the very talented guitarist of that famous cowboy and also founded the label Little Dog Records in 1993. Moot, accompanied by his band “The Cool Deal”, delivers in this ten song album (too short!) what will please those who like TRUE country with stories of motorways («Kind Highway»), of alcohol («Jug of Wine «and «Whiskey Town» which appears in the film «Crash» with Sandra Bullock), of trains (superb and crepuscular «Last Train Home» ) and of broken love («Thanks for Breakin’ My Heart « and «Stay Gone») that is sometimes combined with fast movin’ rhythms (love his “Nothin”). Moot proves with this first album that he’s already a part of those artists, thanks toa certain form of country (the only one for me), will never die. Bear on his “Myspace” homepage (www.myspace.com/bearandtheessentials) says to describe his music “Nothing you would hear on today’s country radio” and I guess he’s right. His music sounds like listening to a fifties Texas juke-joint juke-box: a honky-tonkin spirit with a Johnny Cash/Johnny Horton rockabilly sound. The only reproach to be made to this eleven titles “Two Time Fool” album (produced by Billy Horton) is the same I already made to the Moots one: why is this album so short?? That guy sure knows how to sing and write some good songs: four self-penned songs demonstrate that talent. “Your Heart Won’t Love”, “Heartache to Follow”, “Not Another One But You”, “You Coulda Been The Lucky One” are real masterpieces, some tearjerkin’ or catchy honk-tonk songs the way they were made in the golden fifties. Other tracks are covers from Hank Snow (“Golden Rocket”) Johnny Cash (“It’s Just About Time”) and Johnny Horton (“Honky Tonk Mind”) and the first song of the album written by Ethan Shaw the bass player for the Essentials (“For Bein In Love”) is a very good foreword. Please guys, pour me another glass of your brew as soon as possible!! David "Long Tall" Phisel         Mario Bradley - Rhythm Junction Pink’ n’ Black Records. PBCD 007 Mario Bradley was born in Galway in the Irish Republic and it played of the double bass in several rockabilly groups like The Marvels, The Blue Ridge Mountain Boys and The Bootleggers before learning how to play of other instruments and building its own studio of recording. It is there that he recorded in 1998 its first album «Shake it don’ t break it» an album of 12 titles including 9 compositions. Mario plays there of all the instruments except the saxophone held by Russell Bradley (an homonymic friend). This first album was a true success mixing hypnotic rockabilly, tough rock’ n’roll and swingin’ jive. Since then, nothing. We just knew thanks to his website that Mario was working on a second album but this last was done more than to wait. But finally, the brand new «Rhythm Junction”is out and deliver the same scientist mixes, the same receipt which had made the savour of the first. Faultfinders will be able to reproach this second opus for being a kind of carbon copy of the first and they will not be wrong but Mario overcomes so well this difficult combination between various styles and compositions (12 out of 16 titles of which some are co-signed with Volker Houghton) that I again let myself embark with the first title «Hey Baby», a wild, and violent rockabilly haunted by the cavernous vocal of Mario which always remind Hardrock Gunter one of its most obvious influences and to which he pays a vibrating homage with the cover of «Whoo! I Mean Whee!».And with Mario there’s no time to rest or have a nap: all the titles are pure energy and it is not with «Bip Bop Baby», “Spellbound”, “Metronome Mama” or “Rhythm Train” (which can make you think of a band like «Johnny Bach and his Moonshine Boozers») that you’re gonna stop of boppin’. The Jump-Blues & Jivers as «Hep To The Boogie», “Mabel”, “Beale Street” or “Bye Bye Boogie” are also effective to make you dance. The only “cool” one with a country flavour is “Long Time Gone”.An excellent album for those which are not afraid to maltreat their ears, stomp their feet and wet their shirt! David "Long Tall" Phisel