Guitar Slinger by Brian Setzer (CD, Apr-1996, Interscope Records USA)

geeat cd as usual didnt disapoint love the rock a billy stuff and new rock but it is always good to go back in time

Brian Setzer's one of these guys you're not really sure about. You think he's probably up to something all the time but you don't know what, and you hear about him now and then and he's always got something different going on. You heard he was in the Stray Cats, whoever they were, and isn't he some fifties guy?
Well I don't really know jack about him either, but I know what I like, and this album qualifies.

I played in a band that used the song "Rumble In Brighton" as a set opener. I don't think anybody knew the song, but it sure got people in the mood. This album is by far the most successful marriage of big band orchestra and rock 'n roll I've ever heard. Setzer can make the guitar sing, of course, but that's not the main attraction to this album by a long shot. It's the cool-me lyrics, the references to icons of pop culture, Setzer's vocals, the tasteful big band integration... oh yeah, and the guitar too. He didn't write all the songs, but he sure as hell slings 'em.

One caveat: He came out with an album called The Dirty Boogie, which critics loved and which apparently earned him a lot of success. HOWEVER: I bought it because I loved Guitar Slinger so much, and in a very rare move for me I actually took it back to the record store for a refund. It was good, but I thought it was so much like this one I might as well have listened to this one twice. That was ten years ago, so maybe my opinion would have changed by now, but just fyi.