CD Reviews for 10/29/08 – Charlie Pickett & the …
Compact Capsules
by Dan Ferguson
Charlie Pickett & the ….
Bar Band Americanus
Bloodshot Records BS-154
In Nashville it was Jason & the Scorchers. In Minneapolis it was The Replacements. In L.A. it was X. In Austin it was the True Believers. We’re talking the 1980s, folks, and loose-limbered bands who paid heed to rock & roll. Some delved into a country side thing and others into a punkish kind of rawk. Equal parts early Stones and Johnny Thunders with a dollop of Scorchers-esque punktry, the squall created by Charlie Pickett and his various configurations in the 1980s was Miami’s answer to those aforementioned outbursts. American rock & roll, plain and simple. Never scaling the heights of his contemporaries, the retrospective Bar Band Americanus from Bloodshot Records does the Pickett legacy right and is proof positive that Pickett’s frills-free amalgam of cocksure punk and roots rock has aged well. (Visit www.bloodshotrecords.com.) – Dan Ferguson
(Dan Ferguson is a free-lance music writer and host of The Boudin Barndance, broadcast Thursday nights from 6 – 9 pm on WRIU-FM 90.3. He lives in Peace Dale and can be reached at [email protected].)
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