The Dixie Tramps appeared all too briefly with this 3 song demo tape just before the grunge explosion when bands still played big 70’s rock riffs with punk energy and rock n roll swagger without being ironic. Think early Aerosmith and Led Zep’s funked up groove rock crossed with the snotty, hyperactive attitude of The Pistols or The Clash and you get an idea of The Dixie Tramps sound.

‘Why Don’t You’ is a classic opening song, like a cross between Aerosmith’s ‘Back in The Saddle’ (track one from the ‘Rocks’ album) and Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ (opener from ‘Led Zep III’) with lyrics like “Gonna go out on my own tonight, Gonna get drunk start a fight”. Final track ‘Love Thing’ continues the low-slung vintage riffery and 1970’s vibe like a mix between Aerosmiths ‘Last Child’ and Led Zep’s ‘Heartbreaker’.

But it was the speed boogie of track two ‘She’s So What’ that stood out on the first listen. A three-chord trick with a harmonica solo and chorus of “she’s so lonely, she’s so pretty, she’s so loveless, So What!”. This tune blended the good-time classic rock n’ roll influences with a trashpunk attitude to great effect. It was simple, energetic and fun. Whilst the early 1990s saw The Quireboys, Black Crowes and Aerosmith spend huge studio budgets trying to perfect their sound by indulging in celebrity producers, vintage equipment and global mega-tours, The Dixie Tramps - a pub band from the South Coast of England - had managed to capture all that was great from the previous 30 years of rock n roll history into just over 3 minutes of punk n roll perfection on a TDK tape.

To be honest I know very little else about this band, although the covering letter/biog informs that that the demo was recorded in London during 1991 by a five-man line-up that centred around the song writing partnership of J. Hill and Bruce Samuels. The following quote from the biog sums up the Dixie Tramps philosophy effectively:

“Deciding to put a great Rock n Roll band together, comprising of similar minded people who just wanted to play for the hell of it.”