Customer Reviews

Swingin' West

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

Big sandy sounds great here his voice, his band(this is great retro western swing). A great cd for cocktail parties, drinking martinis and smoking cigars, and for swing dancing(jitterbug and east coast swing). a great cd... read more about me and see my other reviews please..., but 1st buy this cd...