Banditos
Banditos
Bloodshot Records
Biker Chic and Barroom Boogie
As I’ve said before; anything on the Bloodshot label is worth a listen and mercifully the music they create is even better than the way the look the way the band look as they slouch on a massive stars and stripes that graces the cover of their debut album.
Opening track The Breeze rocks and rolls like a rumbling Harley Davidson sportster and gives you very few cues as to what to come next; especially as second track Waitin’ is pure banjo infused Country with Mary Beth Richardson singing the socks off a song that had steam coming out of my speakers.
Main man, Corey Parsons does a more than passable Eddie Cochran vocal on the rip-snorting, tush waggling Still Sober (after all these beers) and when Mary Beth cuts in on the chorus you know she’s not too shy to ask for a beer herself.
The guitars on Can’t Get Away and Cry Baby Cry sound like they are being played with a rusty chainsaw and the latter must be the coolest Honky Tonk Rockabilly song this side of the Rio Grande.
Looking and sounding like the band who would play in the Sons of Anarchy clubhouse Banditos Not everything here is 100mph; the Banditos can get down and Soulful too but songs like Golden Grease are still deep fried, rolled in peppercorns and stuck on the BBQ before a splash or two of hot sauce is added and the final product is handed to you and the band defy you to taste it with a big grin on their faces.
The album ends with a red hot version of Preachin’ to the Choir and the guitar cuts through Parsons breathless vocals like a Bowie knife on a prime piece of Texas steak.
Mixing everything from Tres Hombres era ZZ Top though Drive-By Truckers, Dale Watson and even Wanda Jackson the Banditos just might be the band to put another Alt into Alt. Country.
Released May 12th 2015
The Rocking Magpie 