(self-released) www.bigjohnbates.com
Aside from following time honoured rockabilly tradition of opening with the almost pre-requisite instrumental doodle, this also ends with an excellent little hidden track, or phone message. Whether real or faked , who knows, who cares, it's superb. A guy leaving a message in response to an ad for a bass player, who turns out not to be a bass player at all, but looks good in high heels, and likes being spanked. And so on, you'll have to hear it. This is a pretty heady brew of rockabilly work-outs, sometimes marred by a lot of the intros being similar, some gems ("Big Boom Bop", the monolithically riffed "Voodoo Bar-B-Q", "Ding Dong Daddyland"). It's when they stumble off the beaten track down some dusty dirt road, like on the fingerpoppin' 'Fever' meets 'In Cold Blood' of "Rhyolite", or the atmospheric acoustic/electric crossover riffs off "Trailerhitch", that they really hit gear. The singer has a kind of Jello Biafra voice at times, and shows the Kennedy's in a new, if not better, light on "Too Drunk To Fish", which apart from the title, doesn't really do much to the original, except he makes it fit his whole way of doing things. Not bad. Out of the 16 tracks, a better album could been had, if it's been trimmed down a wee bit. - Stu Gibson