self
titled
Goofin Records GRCD6136 Rock
Rock Jump And Jive - Settin' The Woods On
Fire - Right Or Wrong - Crying The Blues
Over You - Bayou Beauty - All The Time -
Tummat Silmät (Dark Eyes) - Don't Big
Shot Me - Hot Rod Man - Vamos A La Playa
- Down The Line - Little Baby Doll -
Honky Tonk Gal - Hit Git And Split
After two singles
– one on Deke Dickerson’s
Eccofonic and one on Goofin - issued
something like ten years ago, it’s
good to finally see a long player from
High Noon’s ace guitar player : Sean
Mencher. It’s a solid rockin’
album mainly made of classic covers which
is a bit odd when you know Sean’s
ability to write songs. This album sounds
like Mencher wanted to play every genre
he likes and sometimes mixing them
together. You’ve got plenty of
rockabilly of course (Rock’n’Roll
Jump And Jive, Hot Rod Man, Go Cat Go’s
Little Baby Doll) with Zach Ovingtons’
fiddle giving an original and nice
country flavour. Some other songs are
plain country like Hank Williams’
Settin The Wood On Fire or jazz / western
swing Right Or Wrong, one of the
highlight of this album, with a great
swingin’ fiddle and as usual Sean
guitar play is superb. You’ll also
find a beautiful blues, Bill Neely’s
“Crying The Blues Over You”,
with just Sean’s fingerpicking and a
harmonica. Mencher’s self penned
“Bayou Beauty”, previously
played by Ronnie Dawson and High Noon, is
done this time with a full Cajun
instrumentation with accordion, triangle
and Matthew Doucet a native of South
Louisiana on fiddle. A trumpet player is
present on Link Davis’ Dong Big Shot
Me, a not so different from the original
version that suits Mencher’s vocal
very well and also on the Mexican
flavoured “Vamos A La Playa”
provided by ex-Asylum Street Spankers
Josh Arnson. The musicians show their
skills on their interpretation of the
classic instrumental Dark Eyes which
sounds like a mix between jazz and
rockabilly. This very good and versatile
album shows all of Sean Mencher’s
influences and is a pleasure from start
to finish. Fred "Virgil" Turgis