El
Toro Records I'm Sorry Sweet Heart
- So Long I'm Gone -
Flyin' Saucer - Countin'
The Years - Your Heart
Oughta Be Broken - High
Priced Chick - Hilltone
Shuffle - Thunder - She
Isn't Around Anymore -
Bluest Boy In town - Ooby
Dooby - Sayonara - Hurt
These boys are a classic
rockabilly trio (two
guitars and one bass)
from Japan . But when the
music plays, if it wasn't
for the name or the cover
you wouldn't believe it.
They have mastered the
Sun sound so well, you'd
swear they are one of
those upcoming artists
waiting to be discovered
by Sam Phillips.
This album is mostly made
of self penned songs with
the exception of Roy
Orbison's Ooby Dooby and
So Long I'm Gone.
They play a very
entertaining kind of
melodic hillbilly bop
blended with rockabilly
and some Johnny Cash too
(Countin' The Year).
"Hilltone Shuffle"
is an instrumental that
gives Kenjo Ohta the
occasion to shine on
guitar (he also plays
steel). A fiddle enhances
the trio for "She
isn't around anymore"
that shows the influences
of the lovesick blues
boys Hank Williams on
this country weeper. For
their cover of Ooby Dooby
they made an odd choice
in turning it into a Gene
Vincent's number. Imagine
the lyrics of Roy's song
on Be-Bop-A--Lula.
Some songs are sung in
Japanese which surprises
at first but works rather
well.
The low point is the last
song "Hurt".
It's too bad the album
ends on that not so great
Elvis kind of tune, with
grandiloquent vocal. It
wastes a bit the good
impression the whole
album exhales.
But at the end there are
more good point than bad
ones on this album.
Available on their label
or at cdbaby.com Fred "Virgil"
Turgis
