A heads-down, no-nonsense, sprightly mess of blues.
The Texas Headhunters are a three-headed guitar Methuselah consisting of Jesse Dayton, Ian Moore, and Johnny Moeller; coming from road-hardened backgrounds playing in clubs and bars, the outcome is perhaps not unsurprising in style but refreshing in delivery.
In the accompanying PR material it says, admittedly tongue–in–cheek, that they’re back with bigger amps; and that sort of good-humoured irreverence plants this firmly among the classic way of making loud noises with howling guitars in small spaces. Think of The Blasters, Fabulous Thunderbirds (Moeller is a member), George Thorogood and their like, and those will point you in the right direction to what’s on offer here. Add to that a dash of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texan DNA, and it’s a loud, heady cocktail.
The tracks on this album cut across a gamut of bluesy styles, so take that as a given when considering the track descriptions; the word “blues” may have to appear several times…
Starting with Cut’n’Run, a rhythmic boogie shuffle that would fit within the ZZ Top catalogue, it’s clear that the players understand that rhythm is the key to making songs in the genre greater than the sum of their influences. Bouncing bass and funky rhythm guitar trigger the twitchy nerve in the listener, albeit in a good way. Drive you crazy is a more straightforward funk-blues with good drumming dynamics; perfect to throw shapes in the kitchen to, before Bigshot inhabits the spirit of Bo Diddley. Gorgeous bass playing that avoids being a root-note plod shifts the song to suggest all sorts of body-popping possibilities, and the listener can join in with the call and response too.
Talking of inhabiting the spirit of departed blues icons, Howlin’ Wolf springs to mind on the slouching and gruff I did it anyway. There’s a false ending too, before Ian Moore turns up his drive pedal to the max and unleashes free-jazz noise soloing that feels like one big cathartic howl. Favored Nation brings us again to the land of boogie – with its choppy rhythm and singalong chorus, it is the ZZ Top/Sham 69 crossover you never knew you needed.
Title track Rise and Shine is lyrically current in the sense that, on one level, it’s a metaphorical call to greater (presumably political) self-awareness. There’s less soloing than on the following Dogs of Laredo, which varies in tempo and mood across its three minutes and thirty seconds, although there’s a welcome structural discipline and it comes across as a less trippy and much tighter Led Zeppelin. Things like that make this album a much more pleasant experience than others who try to explore similar styles – but then forget the dynamics of the song.
That’s the Kind of Fool I’ll Be is a gorgeous swamp pop blues; the familiar triplets, stop-start rhythms, walking bass and key change are overlaid with soulful, reverb-drenched guitar and an impassioned vocal from Moore. It’s the most accessible song on the album for those who aren’t that inclined to the gospel of the blues.
Funky So’N’So does what it says on the tin; all three guitarists trade solos on an extended instrumental workout. Clocking in at just under two and a half minutes, it’s not even self-indulgent. The album concludes with the busy and classic Texas boogie of Long Ryder and, despite being the second longest on the album, still under four minutes, its insistent rhythm means that it never plods or drags.
A good many years ago, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias put out a song called Heads Down, No-Nonsense Mindless Boogie; take out “mindless”, and you have this album in a nutshell: a carefully crafted, effortless and enthusiastically and cathartically played classic mess of blues.
