Rusty Ends & HillBilly HooDoo – Roadhouses, Juke Joints and Honky-Tonks
This collection from Kentucky’s Rusty Ends is blended effectively & sifted through musical recipes of Kentucky roots & New Orleans hoodoo. The inclusion of a swampy, greasy application helps to pass this music off as a tasty, savory hybrid.
It’s been said before, but it’s an accurate description. Rusty Ends plays this as sharp as the late Leon Redbone played his nostalgic throwback to vaudeville, with not an edge, but a modern coat of varnish in an eccentric, seasoned voice.
15 bluesy pure tracks spill from Roadhouses, Juke Joints and Honky-Tonks (Drops June 20/Earwig Music/49:18) produced by Rusty Ends (vocals/electric guitar), & Michael Robert Frank. Recorded in Delmark’s Riverside Studios in Chicago, IL, you can almost smell the sawdust spread across the pinewood floor & the beer aroma in the Pabst Blue Ribbon air.
You can hear in the music the cigarette scars on the edge of the piano’s mahogany keyboard, & this is all to assist in the appeal of the atmosphere. Music must not only create the melody & groove, it needs to allow the indelible mood to drift — like cigarette smoke once did up to the tin ceiling. Where the bluesy airspace is filled with rich melodically warm guitar notes that add swaying waves that levitate into the soul.
Rusty Ends provides the electricity & does it with entertaining, suave licks. There’s little about blues that’s primitive now. It’s almost like a music taunt on the leash. These blues aren’t all raw, there’s emotional depth, some heartfelt pieces & cleverly chosen covers. An unmistakable Dr. John tonality rises in “Bad Like Billy the Kid,” with a smooth groove in Rusty’s voice. The band’s a bit laid back here, but they lay down cool blue sparks under Rusty’s voice.
“The Same Thing” is more upbeat, but the Dr. John intonation & tone are still there. The guitar snakes around slinky-like. Typical juke joint energy. Rusty also possesses a vibrant Leon Russell-charged voice apparent on “Rockabilly Train” that could’ve used more piano to pick up the tempo. Sounds like a song The Band’s Levon Helm & his old boss Ronnie Hawkins would’ve liked.
As the songs progress, Rusty sounds more like a gutsy stylist. Not so much Dr. John or Leon Russell. “Linda Lu” & “When a Geezer Plays the Blues” are superb. He sings closer to Donald Drowty, aka Dante of Dante & the Evergreens (1960s – “Alley Oop”) because Dante had a unique diction & tone. Good stuff.
The CD package is a 6-panel fold-out with inside spread liner notes.
Highlights – “Bad Like Billy the Kid,” “The Same Thing,” “Rockabilly Train,” “A Little Mixed Up,” “Linda Lu,”& “When a Geezer Plays the Blues.”
Musicians – Dave Zirnheld (vocals/electric bass), Gene Wickliffe (drums), Roosevelt Purifoy (piano/organ) & Wayne Young (2nd guitar).
Color image courtesy of Rusty’s website. CD @ Amazon & https://rustyends.com/ & https://earwigmusic.com/shop-blues/roadhouses-juke-joints-and-honky-tonks-pre-sale/