Eli 'Paperboy' Reed

Getting There

(Yep Roc)

My understanding is that medical personnel are on standby, poised to attend to listeners mysteriously unmoved by the spectacular Soul and R&B stylings that cut all kinds of loose on the floor. (Their acrobatics are lent piquancy by a brace of stormy brass.) Eli has proved his mettle umpty-hundred times, in a decade's worth of wax. As if his adeptitude -- whether emoting rivetingly at mic or massaging gritty gloriosities from a guitar that's apparently seen many-a midnight -- weren't sufficient to prompt wallet-crackings, Zaniah cameoed, and living legend Swamp Dogg not only ensured audio passageways were kept free of clutter, but participated in the sparkle. 

Recommended: "Every Once in a While," "Asking for a Friend," "Getting There," "Like We Used To," "I Can't Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand)," "Love You More" (feat. Zaniah), "Knock Knock Memories," "One Man's Trash (Is Another Man's Treasure)" (feat. Swamp Dogg), "The Questions"

Videos: "Every Once in a While"   "Like We Used To" (Official video), "Love You More"   "One Man's Trash (Is Another Man's Treasure)" 

Site

Facebook

Yep Roc

Bandcamp

Amazon

Apple

Soundcloud

Spotify

WyattChristmas Five

Are You Ready?

(PART Records)

The union of first-chair musicianship -- in American genres familiar to jukers, dancefloor denizens, and goodtime elbow-benders -- and ingenious lyrical delving into matters of universal existentialist qualities magnetizes. Add in sometimes broad wit that sailed its hat across the room. Think, laugh, and shake your good foot.

(Personal note: I read a Blues-site critic's faint praise of this rollicking-fun compendium. He rightly commended instrumental knacks, but kvetched about allegedly frivolous wordage. It's been my altogether unpleasant experience that rigid Blues doctrinaires (who, while asleep, can rattle off the number of songs Ivory Joe Hunter recorded in the spring of 1947, and tell you which of them were in certain time signatures) are among the most rebarbative folks you'll ever turn away from.)

Recommended: "Are You Ready?," "My Best Friend Went Crazy," "Changing Times," "Devil's Got a Hand On Me," "Alligator Bar Blues," "Riot in My Trashcan," "Please Do Like You Did It," "Too Far Too Long Away," "I Am Waiting"

Videos: "Are You Ready?" (live)   "Alligator Bar Boogie" (live)   "Too Far Too Long Away"

Site

Facebook

Rockabilly Shop

BeBe's Records

Sonic Rendezvous

Bear Family

Amazon

Apple

Back in the Day, late '80s

V/A

Black Rock'n'Roll, Volume One

(Savage Kick)

(Precise data as to initial release year was elusive.)

Commonly dug is that talent alone -- even of the top-shelf rank -- isn't enough to realize triumphs and celebrity; connections and happenstance, too, are pivotal. So it is that, though wealth thrives in these grooves, the gifted men responsible remain largely undersung. In the scheme of matters, though, that ain't no thang. Because jumping out of speakers are raw, intemperate blasts from ground-levels of Blues raucousness and R&B vivacity, that no sooner duck out of one barrelhouse than dive into another rock house shindig. Grab a chick, a bottle, and forget all but right now.

Recommended: "Angel Child" (Peppermint Harris), "She Likes to Boogie Real Low" (Frankie Lee Sims), "Thinkin' Man's Girl" (Lord Luther), "Come Back Uncle John" (Big John Greer),  "Chooo Choo" (Cardinals), "Safronia B." (Calvin Boze), "Rock-A-Little Baby" (Harmonica Frank), "The Rooster" (Icky Renrut), "Look-A-There" (Mojo Watson), "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf" (Bunker Hill), "Hillbilly Blues" (Clear Waters), "After Awhile" (The Big Three), "That's All" (Al Garris), "Shotgun Rider" (Bo Dudley), "Holy Mack'rel" (Prentice Moreland), "Holy Smoke Baby" (Tony Alan), "Killer Diller" (King Rhythm), "Tell Me Pretty Baby" (Screamin' Joe Neal), "Jumpin' with Jarvis" (Papa Lightfoot)

Videos: "Angel Child"   "Thinkin' Man's Girl"   "Safronia B."   "The Rooster"   "That's All"   "Holy Smoke Baby"

Discogs

Amazon (2007 CD reissue)

Peppermint Harris

Icky Renrut (Ike Turner)

Novelty horrors broke cold ground

(Why was this piece, perhaps more suitable to All Hallows Eve season, dropped now? Because every day is Halloween in the icy hearts of the wrecking undead.)

In decades prior to Psychobilly's malevolent sculptings, such horror songs as existed tended to be of the innocuous trick-or-treat ghosties rank. 

They were a far piece from modern morbitities thrashed by, say, Daniel deLeon or Rene D La Muerta. (Closer to contemporary monstermen was obscure-in-own-moment Hasil.)

But collectors hip to the spectral tip -- whether they be gatherers of vinyl obscurities or Lux / Ivy compilation CD hoarders -- know well that some bygone-lagoon creature ditties offered merits.

Besides playing on macabre themes (even if in jest), they drew creatively on classical ominous airs and, it could be argued, turned sod from under which P. Paul, Sparky, and a gallery of amped aberrances eventually took legs. (Then, too, there's the chortle factor.)

Pay no heed, then to the innumerable exhumations of "Monster Mash" and Purple People Eater" that seem ubiquitous every October (delightsome though those novelty prancings be). 

Because six feet down, you'll locate waxings beyond the mundane. Here are but a few:

"Graveyard" Larry Bowman

Did you ever take a walk on a pale-moon night through a deserted cemetery? / Spooks all around. Shadows on the ground. Didn't know it could be so scary.

The dirge supporting that 1958 query (which is voiced with echoed somberness) falls to piano-juiced get-up that rollicks elatedly. Initially undertoned, Larry flares into celebration of "Ghost Rock'n'Roll!"

"Graveyard Rock" Tarantula Ghoul and Her Gravediggers

Portland horror-film hostess Tarantula ("Taranch" to fans) was Suzanne Waldren, and her Gravediggers were actually band the Starlighters. "GR" was the flipside of 1959 "King Kong" (on Meadows Records). It bopped animatedly, vocalized in good humor by a male R&B shouter and further vivified by knockaround sax. Taranch's contributions existed solely of sporadic, breathy intonations of the title.

"Rockin' in the Graveyard" Jackie Morningstar

"Now, you've heard of the Purple People Eater, and you've heard about the Witch Doctor too. Well, both those songs sold a million copies. Well, I got one to sell a million too..."

This is perhaps the best-known side included here, not only because Jackie's uncanny marble-orchard scenario is still marketed, but owing also to numerous reinventions by various successors. Among endangered souls who've aped Morningstar's initial scare-giggle are the Guana Bats, Ghostriders, Smell of Kat, Full Moon Cherry, Niteshift Trio, and Roy Loney and the Phantom Movers. 

"Wait a minute, boy. Wait a minute, wait a minute before you run away..."

"Screamin' Ball (at Dracula Hall)" The Duponts

The coolest kind of vintage, which one reflexively augments with handclaps. There's a party all over the place. Finger-poppin', hip-dippin', plasma quaffin'. Only listeners will know the deflating conclusion. 

"Igor's Party" Tony's Monstrosities

Sinister soirees were common occurances in this eerie splinter-genre. Squeaky harpies inquire "Igor, Igor, funny little man. Standin' there grinnin' with a shovel in your hand...what's your plan?" To which the malshaped miscreant retorts "Goin' out tonight and dig a Rock'n'Roll band!" Across the song's skippy (though subtle) trajectory, structure is lent by either claves or fibula on skull.

"I Was a Teenage Creature" Lord Luther

The first-hand relation of monster sprees (and ensuing atrocities) is offset by Luther's odd whimsicality. He sounds unconcerned -- even amused -- about the inhuman trompings to his credit. Behind him scampers jitter-onward musicianship that digs how to rock and shakes moneymaker with jazz stank.

"Haunted House" Cris Kevin

A Virginny DJ, Warren Miller recorded for United Artists under his given name, and as Cris for Colt 45 Records. For the latter, he issued 1959 single "Have Gun Will Travel" with this spookish cut on the flip. Howling rain-storm gusts lash in opening seconds; what ensued was a guitar/voice cautionary message set to a tune so jaunty that it (and "goblins" forecastings) impress that the titular creep joint was raised by some Fisher Price precursor.

"The Mummy"  The Naturals

Free-from-leash honking sax and big, bold drumwork leap from the line, joined within moments by a manic storyteller whose every pronouncement skids in unhingedness. After untombing a Ho-Tep hepcat and adding the wrapped attraction to his band, the protagonist is thunderstruck as crazed fans "tear him in half!" The mummy croaks the grunted demand he'd repeatedly voiced throughout: "Put me back in my tomb!" (The Naturals later adopted new name The Honeydrops.)

Dex's midnight rumblers               

Music was left poorer by the 2024 loss of Dex Romweber.

The erstwhile Flat Duo Jets' frontman was a hulking and stentorian-voiced guitar-basher. He quivered and jittered in onstage paroxysms and, following the FDJ's term, issued numerous solo discs of rum aspect. Each slashed.

In 2025, he was posthumously inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. 

And last June saw the second North Carolina DexFest, at which family members, friends, and fellow musicians gathered to share reminiscences and coalesce in fond memorial. Bands appearing included tribute vehicle The Flat Do-Over Jets and Lenny Kaye and Friends.

Over solo years, Dex worked with collaborators including "Crash" Larue and sister Sara. Consistent, though, was roots-genres genuiness -- even if it favored brashly strutting interpretations likely to slap every skull in the place.

Dex's writing was of monumental stature. Fans (who were legion) bore witness to the union of hound dog rhythms and high musical art, as six-string manhandlings made unlikely common cause with majestic passages and august symphonic movements. 

His was a class of one.

Dex's works were tunefully logical within helter-skelter contexts. Throughout floated ghosts lugubrious, stricken, and -- at moments -- jaunty and piano-rolling. It was as if each rising moon ushered an All Hallow's Eve you just couldn't dig enough.

Ethereal intonings, voodoo toms, kitchenware that rattle-clanked like skeletal percussion, and stark word murals clawed away a curtain behind which lurked strange terrains. All rampages were seized up from a familiar Rock'n'Roll cauldron, though accented in unique enunciation.

2023's Good Thing Going (Propeller Sound Recordings) proved to be Dex's final full-length wax. "Dex finds a balance between battered guitars, piano ballads, and reverb-drenched vibes while powered by the inspiration of classic Gospel and soulful R&B," reads Propeller's website description.

The wonderfully incendiary title number features quintessential Dex facets: Gruff vocals on first-name bases with every note on the musical rainbow; mad strumming straight out of a cloudburst; angelic choruses impeccable in grandeur; and determination so all-powerful one can see cords stand out from the author's strained neck.

Instrumental "Andrieux Boogie" does a fancy-footed ragtime promenade with jocular bell tinklings and piano skedaddling. Even those possessed of zero dancing skills will cut the closest rug to shreds.

Some tracks later, Mr. Romweber gave Mann/Weil's chestnut "Shape of Things to Come" crisp animation by asserting trademark boldness.

"Tell Laura I Love Her," a 1960 teen-heartbreak melodrama, was exhumed and revivified with the sincerity of its portrayals of loving-sacrifice and eternal devotion pledge.

The final of 12 cuts, "I Found My Love," unspooled in elegant simplicity. The understated echo on Dex's bottomless vocalizing emphasized the song's vitality. (He plainly knew the subject personally.) Guitar resolutely soldiered forward, its adamance proud.

Dex Romweber's was a funhouse zone in which curiosities, emotionalism, and demolition dive-bombing all held deeds. No one could have gotten out. But then, none of us desired to.

Facebook (Tribute page)

Facebook (The Dexter Romweber's Legacy Appreciation Society)

Propeller Sound Records

Videos: "Juvenile Delinquent" (:38 1987)  "Brazil"    "Jungle Drums"   "Trouble of the World"   Live (2023 acoustic performance 8:49) "Good Thing Going"

The Blasters

Rare Blasts: Studio Outtakes and Movie Music 1979 - 1985

(Liberation Hall)

Neophyte barroom jumpers are counseled to study the faiths of the Blasters, just as California Alvin brothers Phil and Dave - plus accompanying roots stalwarts John Bazz, Gene Taylor, Bill Bateman, and Steve Berlin - revered works of impactful pioneers like Magic Sam, Big Joe Turner, Charlie Rich, and Sonny Burgess. (Also aboard was sax legend Lee Allen, himself a voice on storied, back-in-the-day waxings.) Alvin-the-Dave's own pennings settled comfortably amongst gray-bearded, plain-folks songs. The whole totals a learning trek of foot-dashing significance.

(Others sometimes joining the rank included X/Knitters agitator John Doe and bassist Jeff Eyrich.)

Rare Blasts contains outtakes and film numbers. Thrown into the bargain are scarce photos and memorabilia images. Record Store Day, Rough Trade, Discogs, and other independents offered this on limited-edition blue cobalt vinyl. 

Young cats - start hittin' the books.

(Sadly, ever-emotive Phil has suffered serious health issues. The singer is said to be improving, thankfully. But support is yet needed: Donate.)

Recommended: "21 Days in Jail," "Love 24 Hours a Day," "I Fell in Love," "So Glad," "Ashamed of Myself," "One Bad Stud," "Blue Shadows," "Flat Top Joint," "Cry for Me," "Kathleen"

Videos: "21 Days in Jail"    "Love 24 Hours a Day"   "I Fell in Love"   "So Glad"   "Ashamed of Myself"   "Blue Shadows"   "Kathleen"

Site (semingly inactive)

Facebook (inactive since 2023)

Site (Dave Alvin)

Liberation Hall

Record Store Day

Rough Trade

Discogs

Bandcamp

Apple

Amazon

The Blasters

s/t, Non Fiction, Hard Line

(Slash / Liberation Hall)

The Blasters' three Slash LPs, now thankfully reissued by Liberation Hall, represent some of the 1980s Neo-Rockabilly crusade's finest exponents. 

Solid grounding in Blues truths was every bit as hardwired into their muscular exertions as were dirt-road joints' bucolic animations.

Dave Alvin threw flashing fires packed with twangs from his Strat. He also evidenced himself as a song-craftsman with one alligator shoe in vintage Americana tune idioms, and the other in a many-shelved library.

Bill Bateman, Gene Taylor, and John Bazz acquited themselves with such passions (all the while confidently showing their respective instruments who was boss) that kids beholding them doubtless caught the bug. (That's how Rock'n'Roll works.) 

Adding their own sax magics to all three discs were OG Lee Allen (whose majestry exists into perpetuity in scores of vital vintage waxings) and Steve Berlin, himself a cut-above brass actionist. Better bopping through honking.

Brother Phil crooned every melody and touched all notes with enviable mastery. As if it were easy. But his bulging temple veins, and the perspiration rivulets demarcating facial features like interstates on an unfolded map, let the cat escape the bag.

They were the real article, while all around were flamboyant money-machine contrivances. Flock of Seagulls, Eurythmics, Madonna, and a slew of interchangeable MTV manikens had limited shelf life. 

The Blasters offered desperately craved, rocked-to-the-nth-degree celebration, in an otherwise airless and formulaic music environment. Genuine humanity was in scant supply. They brought it. Oh, brother, did they.

Plus, with each chord, note, and downbeat, they kept in glorious dynamism stylings crafted by elders like Rudy Toombs, Jimmy Rodgers, Little Willie Johns, and Big Joe Turner. (Afore-cited, stalwart originals from the pen of Dave boosted the worth.)

I'll scrutinize one track from each record.

"American Music" (first waxed by Ronny Weiser's Rollin' Rock indie label) was a rousing calling card whose union of rambunctiousness and legitimate Old Gloryism underscores blood shared by common-man musics birthed in New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, the Delta, and anywhere folks earned calluses and burned candles 'til wee hours.

"Look Out It Must Be Love." Dave once told an interviewer that the more personal a lyric, paradoxically, the more universal its relatability. In no example is that truer than this song. While idiosyncrasies like "she works all night at a joint on the highway" and making a "date at the city hall" don't figure in everyone's wedlock accounts, the 'lavender haze' experience is common. For 2:59, Dave and Phil, Gene Taylor, and the Johns Bateman and Bazz bounce like to happify all hearts from Lovers' Lane to Saturn's rings.

"Rock and Roll Will Stand" Embodied here is a quality typical of Blasters' ouput: Raging momentum of old-ways Rock'n'Roll in fresh glad rags, ridden by substantial lyricism that speaks of mankind's undersurface. Hard to discern is whether its honest criticisms of shady managers, fickle audiences ("dedicated followers of fashion," went a bygone verse), and the hapless protagonist himself were intended as industry condemnations or forewarning advisories. Probably both. 

I'll land the plane here: Then and today, the group deserves acclaim by the Mason jar-full. In 2026, a somewhat altered lineup hefts the group's standard admirably. Between their efforts and Dave's solo ones, "the house'll be shakin' from the bare feet slappin' on the floor," as a man once said.

Recommended, s/t: "Marie Marie," "I'm Shakin'," "Border Radio," "American Music," "So Long Baby Goodbye," "This is It," "I Love You So," "Stop the Clock"

Recommended, Non Fiction: "Red Rose," "No Other Girl," "Bus Station," "One More Dance," "It Must Be Love," "Jubilee Train," "Long White Cadillac," "Fool's Paradise," "Leaving"

Recommended, Hard Line: "Trouble Bound" (feat. the Jordanaires), "Little Honey," "Samson and Delilah," "Hey Girl," "Samson and Delilah," "Rock and Roll Will Stand"

Videos: "Stop the Clock" (live, 1982)   "Fool's Paradise"   "Trouble Bound"

Site

Facebook (band)

Instagram

Facebook (Dave Alvin)

Liberation Hall

Forced Exposure

grooves.land

MVD Shop

Bandcamp

Roy Head feat. Deniz Tek

Last Time Around

(Wild Honey Records)

Lore holds that Soul/R&B/Pop belter Roy - who could slip from full-bodied exhortation into creamy crooning as eminent as any we're likely to hear in this life - was once kicked off a James Brown tour for untethered onstage exuberance. We owe gratitude to Wild Honey and Radio Birdman guitarist Deniz Tek for now restoring Roy to deserved approbation.

The re-recording of Roy's 1965 hit "Treat Her Right" paired him with Deniz, and is featured here. Deniz also lent his fret faculties to two additional cuts. His articulations flabbergast. Unreleased 2020 tracks feature the singer's guitarist son, Sundance; Head the younger exhibits serious chops and substantial flash worthy of the moment.

Accompanists all meet the task admirably. Brass alternately swells, descends, and flows in sterling service to each passionate passage. And the dynamism furnished by the agile-yet-stalwart rhythm section maintains vitality.

Tragically, Roy's passing occured as he was recording this collection. His gritty oeuvre puts the lie to the racist fancy that white men can't grab up Soul and R&B pulsations, twist them mightily, and wring out every possible drop of sweetness. (Identical salute is also merited by Wayne Cochran.)

"'Living legend' is a word used too carelessly, these days," Deniz once said to Detroit Rock'n'Roll magazine. "This is one time that it fits."

Recommended: "Feels Like Rain," "Slow Down (But Don't Stop)," "Lean and Hungry," "Ice Cream Man," "Still Married," "Undercover Agent for the Blues," "Earthquake," "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby," "Daddy Oh," "Treat Her Right"

Videos: "Ice Cream Man" (feat. Deniz Tek)   "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby"   "Treat Her Right" (Hollywood A Go Go TV show, mid-1960s)

Wild Honey (Bandcamp)

Facebook (Deniz)

Green Noise Records

Sounds of Subterrania

Apple

Amazon

Spotify

Deniz Tek

Lasse Edin

"My Sunshine"   single

(Talking Music)

Wide-open and swaggering uptempo Blues, carrying an avowal of devotion belted out by a Romeo sporting shades and laying down a groove invincible. The happily handcuffed prisoner of passion enjoys the company of good-time 88s and rejoiceful harmonica. This is the out-loud strut of a man blissfully smitten.

Video

Facebook

Talking Music

zdigital.com.au

Spotify

V/A

Boom-A-Lay and Chug-A-Lug / Vol. 7 and 8

(Stag-O-Lee)

The bar was dim. Laughs, muffled conversations, and the clink of glasses were heard. The Seeburg in the corner wobbled slightly. From it's speaker, smooth Jazz, R&B, and Pop melodies serenaded. 

Suddenly, the juke changed platters. A sax blared, stage-lights blazed, and a fish-netted leg kicked out from behind the magenta curtain.

Recommended: "Downstairs" (Plas Johnson and His Orchestra), "13 Women" (Chance Halladay), "Almost Good" (David Seville), "Boom-A-Lay" (The Astro-Jets), "Tremble" (Malcolm Dodds), "Night Walk" (Dick D'Agostin & the Swingers), "Bury Me Deep" (Chance Halladay), "Jekyll and Hyde" (Jim Burgett), "I Gotta Run Now" (Bobby Scott), "Laugh My Heart" (Malcolm Dodds), "The Search Goes On" (Trini Lopez), "Bad Man of Missouri" (Jimmy Ricks)

Video: "Almost Good"   "Night Walk"   "Laugh My Heart"   

Stag-O-Lee

Bandcamp

Crypt Records

Discogs

Amazon

Plas Johnson

Dick D'Agostin & the Swingers

Ray Black & the Flying Carpets

Downtown Ride

(Rhythm Bomb Records)

Swingin' like a gate, from the Land of Chocolate. Sign on the door: No Squares Allowed. Straight from the fridge, they clearly learned to move their bones at the Gene S. Institute. Now givin' out licks that cram hardwood.

From DJ Wildgoner's liner notes: "To simply call them a Rockabilly band wouldn't do them justice, as they also draw their musical influences from 1950s Rock'n'Roll, early 1960s Garage/R&B, and early 1960s Country."

Recommended: "Downtown Ride," "Hornet Bop," "That's What I'd Do," "Speed King," "Big Ol' Spark," "Rockin' In Baghdad," "When the Sun Comes Up," "Burning Lips," "I Never Felt This Way"

Video: "Speed King"

Site

Facebook

Rhythm Bomb

Discogs