Wednesday 30 March 2011

Lee Rocker - The Cover Sessions (EP)



Lee Rocker - The Cover Sessions (EP)
Upright Records

Tracklist:
1. Come Together (The Beatles cover)
2. Drivin’ My Life Away (Eddie Rabbit cover)
3. Honky Cat (Elton John cover)
4. City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman cover)
5. Ramblin’ Man (The Allman Brothers cover)
6. Come Dancing (The Kinks cover)

Of all the solo work the former Stray Cats members have done since they disbanded, to me Lee Rocker has been the most rewarding, album wise. While I like most of Brian's band stuff and look fiorward to his forthcoming instrumental album, Rocker has never strayed far from his rockabilly roots. Without a doubt, his Live album is the best any of them have done as solos. This new release is a 6 song EP of songs he grew up with. He sums it up best by describing the album as “a rockabilly record, it’s not really a country record, but it’s something in between.” Whilst the new versions might not be earth-shatteringly differenent from the original, the double bass and acosutic feel, together his harmonicas, banjos and dobros gives them a real, feel good, earthy feel that make this a more than justifiable exercise.

In an interview with OC Weekly, Rocker explained how the project came about. “The story behind [the] EP is that over the past few years, I became really interested in acoustic instruments. I started collecting banjos, dobros, ukeleles, an auto harp, folk guitars, harmonicas, accordions, and all kinds of percussion stuff like a washboard and spoons… I went in the recording studio and just started messing around with all these instruments. I found myself gravitating to songs I heard on AM radio as a kid.”

I really like this collection and have to comment on how much his voice has improved since the b-side days of Cross That Bridge. If I had to choose favourites I'd have to go for Drivin’ My Life Away. A great song that I fell in love with via Sonny Fisher - which to me is still the version to beat. The only track that I wanted to be better was City of New Orleans - I just wanted wanted it to kick ass half way through - pick up a little steam so to speak! So all told, another recommended album from Lee Rocker.

1 comment:

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