13 Cats: Too cool for planet Earth

            

Tim Polecat. Smutty Smith. Slim Jim Phantom. Danny B Harvey. (Plus sometime auxillary bassman Jonny Bowler.)

As formidable as that gallery might appear in print, it devastated when behind mics.

A felicitously aberrant rascal mission whose storied big beat-ministers hailed from glory-scribed walks the Polecats, Rockats, and Stray Cats, 13 Cats flickered brilliantly, albeit shortly.

They crafted stunningly novel admixtures of literate, fantastic lyricism and burly roots musics jetted up into tomorrow. Much-loved Rockabilly nuggets, newly drunk on adrenaline joy juice, were catapulted through flick-knife Punk and Psycho back alleys. And self-penned, splintered reflector tableaus reeled crazily amidst jubilant uproar.

One brief lyrical citation illustrates sufficiently:

She walks the Information Highway, he's on vine from Monday to Friday. They get together when the weekend comes. She digs Sinatra, he beats his drums.

Jungle Man and Robot Girl, victims of the modern world.

Sadly, waxings are sparse. 2001's in the beginning (Revel Yell Music) preserved studio reanimations of Charlie Feathers, the Rockin' R's, and Bill Allen and the Backbeats' shout/jump standards, as well as band originals (including "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon" and "Flesh for Andy Warhol") captured on radio and at live spectacles. 

2003's full-length 13 Tracks (Raucous) presented nearly all freshly-coined jaunts -- like "Leather Straitjacket," "Jungle Man, Robot Girl," and "Snap, Crackle, and Hiss" -- the sole exception being 13 Cats' conflagratory take on Bill Allen and the Backbeats' 1958 "Please Give Me Something."

The swaggering supergroup's irregular brainstorming was further typified by originals "Poison Candy," "Chanting for Cadillacs," "Sex Hex," and "Hell Bop." In each, raceway rocketing that likely stole committed witnesses' oxygen proved the equal of message uncanniness.

(Two other selections, "13 Cats" and "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon," had turned up in 1999 film The Rage: Carrie 2.)

Subsequent years brought two or three repackagings, rarities compendiums, and a performance DVD. But by that time, members had dispersed and discovered crisp attractions. New individual glories were mined.

But, oh -- what was! 

Eruptive, scintillating guitar-led Neo-Rockabilly that spanned Blues, Country, and primal Rock'n'Roll. Flamboyantly idiosyncratic gestures colluded with flabbergasting instrumentation, in rave-up  flammables of adventurous mien. 

Modern-day Sci-Fi/ fantasy was grafted onto vintage rompings to father a bloodshot-eyed creation full of verve, strut and cat-styled swell.

We had 13 Cats for what seemed but a twinkling. One tilted moment. They'd rocked headfirst into a topsy-turvy and taboo delirium dear to senses-fevered apostles. Perhaps from blueprinting, theirs had been envisioned as a fleeting escapade.

Whatever the case, recorded portraits and gray-matter snapshots are all we have left of the wonder that was.

Videos: "Sex Hex"   "Snap, Crackle, and Hiss"   "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon"   live in Vegas (36:27)

Bandcamp (in the beginning)

Bandcamp (13 Tracks)

Danny B Harvey: Fingertips combustible 

There are legions of able guitar slingers, all of whose efforts help stoke important flames. Kentucky-born Danny, though, ranks way high. 

Swing, Rockabilly, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country - Danny interprets each with ease and the posture of an erudite academic (who's swung a chain or two, in his time). Indeed, listening raptly as he fashions wondrous works simultaneously indebted to American roots argots and accelerative of them as heady, reinvented creatures, one feels like a fortunate pupil.

Danny's features generally remain placid as he swipes at his Telecaster under multi-colored and strobing stage lights, tearing from it lick upon astounding lick. He occasionally shoots audiences a slight smile as if to ask, "See how easy this is?"

For him, perhaps.

An assiduous showman, he freely indulges both US cat and UK Teddy Boy styles. Black leather jackets are alternated with vivid and elegant drape ones. Motorcycle boots, vivid creepers, two-tone bowling shirts, solid-hued tees -- all report to his closet.

Danny has through decades of applied heart earned industry respect as a first-chair player guaranteed to add class to anyone's cause. His fretboard wizardry has advanced missions mounted by Levi Dexter, Wanda Jackson, Lee Rocker, and Bow Wow Wow. 

Also on the list are groups including The Rockats, Honeydrippers, Swing Cats, Lonesome Spurs, 13 Cats, 69 Cats, Devil's Daughters, and Headcat (with Lemmy Kilmeister, Slim Jim Phantom, David Vincent, Jonny Bowler, and Alan Davey).

His most recent recording, at this writing, is Headcat Plays Buddy Holly. The disc reflects Harvey's capacity for animation of pure Rock'n'Roll, its Blues and Country facets at high luster.

When renowned titans Danny, Slim Jim, and Lemmy cast fortunes into one jackpot, a supergroup of planetary capacity assumed configuration. Meat-and-potatoes, crasharound rocking was zested by the piquancy of gods.

Early on, Danny told Blabbermouth.net: "I'm so excited this album is coming out, showing how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim, and I. We all love Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard, but as Lemmy said in his book White Line Fever, 'Buddy Holly never did a bad track, as far as I could hear.' I'm sure that's why our first album was mainly Buddy Holly songs."

There exist no previous DBH discs one shouldn't obtain. Here are two that merit acknowledgement:

Having by the early 2000s already done movie soundtrack endeavoring, Danny was solicited by Cult Films for its 2004 Dark Angel: Bettie Page, which starred Paige Richards.

"I played all the instruments on those recordings, as I do on a lot of my recordings," Danny told me in a 2005 interview for Rockabilly magazine. "I always record the drums using a combination of sample loops and real drums. Of course, the guitars, keyboards, and bass are all me."

For Dark Angel, he composed and performed smart backing for vintage Bettie stills and film loops. Titles included "Whip Dance," "Fighting Girls," "Bound and Gagged," and "Whatever Happened To?"

Characteristically, his soloing enunciated a panoply of emotions and inclinations, from ecstasy to aggressiveness to pensive, introspective articulation.

"Bettie Page's influence over men and women alike is off the Richter Scale, as far as I'm concerned," he told me. "Girls all over the world dress like her, walk like her, and cut their hair like her. Her look is timeless and will always be in style."

For his 2005 solo, all-instrumental CD Rockabilly Jazz (Raucous 2005), Danny again played everything. Filled nearly to bursting with buoyant runs, bends, trills, and twangs, the disc was manna. He revisited classic modes and airs, charging them with fresh elan.

It was what a happy guitar turned loose sounds like.

"My finger-picking style is a direct derivative of Chet Atkins's and Merle Travis's picking style," Danny explained to me at the time. "I love to play loud and fast, but playing like Chet Atkins is very challenging."

Merle Travis tribute "The Travis Rag" is a carbonated, finger-picked romp over high-spirits clay. "Cattlesburg Express" rolls and rollicks merrily down driven-steel tracks in headlong ramble. "Dixie Doodle Dandy," splices traditional Southern and Northern melodies, recalling Link Wray's 1959 "Dixie Doodle."

In Jazz aspect, "Misty" unfurls sumptuous atmospherics. An exhumation of the Benny Goodman/Charlie Christian chestnut "Seven Come Eleven" gambols with uptown carriage. And the stately "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?" ambles serenely, chin high.

An instinctive hybridizer, Danny is that rarest and most meritorious of players -- a heart-wired, creatively inquisitive, adventurous artist whose encyclopedic knowledge and expressive abilities awe riveted listeners and envious colleagues, alike.

His best work may well lie ahead. But Headcat Plays Buddy Holly and looking further back offer unique rewards.

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Videos: "Whiskey Hollar Blues" (solo w/Bettie reel)   "Crazy Baby" (13 Cats)   "Hammerhead" (solo)   "Whip Dance" (Paige Richards) "Not Fade Away" / "Fool's Paradise" (Headcat, live)   "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (Headcat alternate mix)

headcat

...Plays Buddy Holly   red / yellow vinyl, CD, and digital

(Cleopatra)

Danny B Harvey on social media: "This album will be out on vinyl, cassette tape & CD worldwide May 15, 2026 on Cleopatra Records. I’ve remastered all the songs and added 3 unreleased alternative mixes that I did during the original sessions in 1999."

When Danny, Slim Jim, and Lemmy - renowned titans, all - cast fortunes into one jackpot, a supergroup of planetary capacity assumed configuration. Meat-and-potatoes, crasharound rocking was zested by the piquancy of gods.

But you already knew that.

Last month, Danny told Blabbermouth.net: " "I'm so excited this album is coming out, showing how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim, and I. We all love Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard, but as Lemmy said in his book White Line Fever, 'Buddy Holly never did a bad track, as far as I could hear.' I'm sure that's why our first album was mainly Buddy Holly songs."

Issued concurrently will be a digital EP, containing "Fools Paradise," "Peggy Sue Got Married," and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" alternate mixes.

Since these words are being typed prior to the new disc's issuance, pesented below are links to Headcat's previous versions of songs to be included:

Recommended: "Fools Paradise," "Tell Me How," "Take Your Time," "Well...All Right," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," "Fools Paradise," "True Love Ways" (instrumental)"

Videos: "Fools Paradise" (live 2006)   "Take Your Time" (Fools Paradise LP adaptation)   "Peggy Sue Got Married" (fan-made video)   "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (From Fools Paradise)   "Love's Made a Fool of You" (Fools Paradise)   "True Love Ways" (instrumental)

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Discrepancy Records

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Wanda Records

Levi Dexter and the Ripchords, feat. Danny B Harvey

The Complete Studio Recordings   digital album

(Daniel Bryan Harvey)

The early 1980s were electric: Golden-piped Robert Gordon, Danny Dean, and Colin Winski strutted at the fore of a stateside revival of raw Rock'n'Roll. Numerous European precincts seethed in like mode.

Levi had recently left anglo-American neo-Rockabilly dervishes the Rockats (a glad-rags gang the fancy-footwork Roots Man had founded, and to whose thoroughly solid cat-stylings Danny would later add his eminently gone fret ravagings). Shoulder-to-shoulder, and crackingly assisted by young fire-hurlers easily equal to the frenetic mission, Levi and Danny instilled crisp swagger into the wonderfully rakish bop creature first raised up in nights of white-walls, rickety tables, and gravel back-road games of Chicken.

This compilation first saw issuance in 2015. Two versions of the recordings are today available: a 15-track release, and one comprising 19 cuts.

Recommended: "I Get So Excited," "Other Side of Midnight," "Victim of Kool," "Let's Roll," "Jitterbop Baby," "That's It, That's All," "B-I-Bickey-B-Bo-Bo-Go," "Reckless Rebel" (demo), "I'm Gone," "Catfight," "21 Days"

Videos: "Other Side of Midnight"   "Victim of Kool"   "That's It, That's All"   "I'm Gone"

Levi:

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