BERT BLACKMONT & THE BUCKS - HIGH LIFE

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1. Wake Up, Wake Up!   2. I Wanna Be (Bert Blackmont)   3. Losing My Faith (On You)   4. Buck's Train   5. High Life   6. Automatic Joe   7. Nena Peligrosa   8. Rockabilly Music   9. Russian Love   10. Solo Tengo Un Corazón (No Heart To Spare)   11. No Good Lover

Sleazy Records / SRCD27-41

First "long play" from this group and a good disc it is. The band members are Bert Blackmont (voice and maracas), Carlos Jiménez (guitar), Antonio "Smiley" (double bass) and J. Bucks (drums). People with quite a lot of experience playing Rockabilly and with previous experience in other well known bands in the Spanish Rockabilly scene such us The Beerbellys, Mike Hillman & The Latin Hillbillies and so on.

Rockabilly, yes indeed: that's what we have in the 11 cuts of this "High Life", with 8 of them written by band members and the other 3 coming from outside ("Rockabilly Music", "Solo Tengo Un Corazón" and "No Good Lover"). 8 of them are sung in English, 2 in Spanish, plus 1 instro.

I've liked a lot this CD and I find difficult to highlight a single song. Probably, of the songs penned by the own band, my favourites are "Nena Peligrosa" (which start reminds me of "Brand New Cadillac", by the way), "Losing My Faith (On You)" and the instro "Buck's Train" (great harmonica).

Among the covers, they do a very good job with Mickey And Sylvia's "No Good Lover", for which they get the help of Carmen Robles for the second voice and to which they give a Rockabilly beat. I've also liked "Solo Tengo Un Corazón", that is a version in Spanish of the Go Getters' "No Heart To Spare".

It is written at the beginning of this review: a good record. Thumbs up for Bert Blackmont & The Bucks.