Swingin' West

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hightone Records
• ASIN: B0000005RA
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,654 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Songs Include : Let Me In There Baby / Music To Her Ears / You Don't Matter Anymore / My Sinful Days Are Over / Parts Unknown / Too Late To Be True / Hey Muchachita / Why Do You Have To Torture Me / Blackberry Wine / Murphy's Law / If I Wrote A Song About Our Love Affair / We Tried To Tell You / You Say You Don't But You Do / A Healer Like Time / The New Ball

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars personally my favorite, June 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Swingin' West (Audio CD)

The songs on this album are great. It's really upbeat country. I like this album a lot better than "jumpin from 6 to 6," and i thought that album was great. Big Sandy has great clever/witty lyrics and keeps rockabilly fun on this album. Good from start to finish, kinda leaves you wanting more. great for fans of hank williams, older country, and fans of new and old rockabilly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This very well could be called "A Tribute to Louis Jordan", February 20, 2004

By 

Paco Rivera (East LA area, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Swingin' West (Audio CD)

Even though Robert Willimas(Big Sandy) wrote these gems, they sound right out of the Louis Jordan songbook, and the band plays more along the lines of jump blues and R&B 1940s' combo, with a hint of western swing. Sandy's vocals are ever so smoooooth!!! This wil lappeal to fans of jazz, swing, R&B, Jump blues, Western Swing and rockabilly! A great cd, one of sandy's very best! Highlight include Let Me In There Baby, and Parts Unknown. Great hillbilly jazz at it's very best right here fro mSouthern CAl. I have seen Big Sandy at least 2 dozen times in clubs in LA, and this cd represents what you would hear at one of his shows.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Retro-rific Western swing/trad country, April 18, 2005

By 

Greg Brady "columbusboy" (Capital City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Swingin' West (Audio CD)

Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys specialize in retro country, much like the Derailers or BR5-49. But unlike the Derailers' Bakersfield sound or BR5-49's rockabilly leanings, Big Sandy usually keeps it fairly straight down the traditional country middle with some occasional dabblings in Western swing. To keep it all sounding authentic, roots music maven Dave Alvin runs the knobs as producer.

HIGHLIGHTS:
Honky tonker "My Sinful Days are Over" is easily one of the best here as Big Sandy runs down a litany of his sins he intends to do away with...one day. "Too Late to be True" is a kiss-off to an unfaithful lover, as is "Parts Unknown". "We Tried to Tell You" has the Fly-Rite Boys commisserating with Big Sandy post-breakup. ("She has the sweetest love around/Why just ask any guy in town..We tried to tell you")

LOW SPOTS:
"Murphy's Law" is a somewhat nondescript instrumental. "You Say You Don't (But You Do)" just seems a bit tossed off..a very middling composition.

BOTTOM LINE:
Sandy and company sound like a long lost classic country act that somehow filtered back into today's history via time machine. Alt country fans will find much to love here, as will fans of Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, and Hank (Sr. that is) that aren't doctrinaire that it has to be "old" to be good.

3 1/2 stars