Bursting with flavour, these raw recordings will most certainly wear your boots down.
It’s a little country, a little rock and a whole lot of tobacco spitting, foot stomping and toe twisting, guitar-licking tunes. All Hat And No Cattle follows from the Dead Peasants’ 2012 debut album, and continues Chris Shiflett’s love for rockabilly rhythms.
Renowned for his heavier guitar work with Foo Fighters, Shiflett also leads this country-flavoured side project. Inspired by artists like Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens and Don Rich, this album is the reverse of the Dead Peasants’ debut and features nine classic covers from such artists.
The record starts slow and steady, introducing the country rock sounds of Rich’s ‘Guitar Pickin’ Man’, and then moves its way to the honky-tonk vibrations defined by a range of rockabilly musicians. ‘A Woman Like You’, the only original song, is sharply written and draws inspiration from the musical styles visited throughout the record, complementing the overall sound and leaving you intrigued. Faron Young’s vintage ‘Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young’ really shows off the vibrant guitar work by Shiflett and Luke Tierney, only adding to the upbeat and funky vibe. Without straying too much from the original version of the songs, Shiflett’s voice blends well with the guitar tones and together the band sounds tight, producing a much fuller and fresher homage to the late 1950s era while still incorporating Shiflett’s rock drive.
3/5 stars
BY JAYDE FERGUSON
All Hat And No Cattle is out now through Side One Dummy/Shock Records
