The Tremors

The Scourge of the South

(Black Angel Promotions)

Upstart Black Angel Promotions wisely elected to reissue this 2004 barnburner as its maiden venture, remastering it and including a rare, full-length radio broadcast from that year. Only 100 CDs are to be pressed. Discs will be available October 11, and no digital or pre-sales are planned.

The febrile combo's credibility was (and remains) beyond dispute. Leader Jimmy Tremor and his backwoods cohorts have torn up stages with illustrious fellow sons of the soil, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Hasil Adkins, and storied mountain dancer Jesco White. They've knocked back audiences in both clubs and festivals, the Oneida Rockin' 50s Fest, Nashville Boogie, and Heavy Rebel Weekender numbered among the latter.

And in 2014, the trio was inducted into the Hillbilly Hall Of Fame. An introductory post described them as "Hillbilly rock stars" whose "back story includes both zombiefication and alien abduction."

Long out-of-print, The Scourge Of the South was the trio's debut CD. It aptly portrayed their helter-skelter personality, one of feral cats howling at the fractured, midnight blood-moon from the red-clay tobacco roads of America's lost-hayseed dimension. 

The disc didn't wipe its feet or cover its coughs. It was a rumbustious howdy-hi to Big Beat disciples who hungered for crude and manic Rebel Sounds. The fiery, good-time freight just barely stayed on the steel. That songs never quite flew from the track was testament to the band's prowess.

Jimmy's emotionally-tilted implorings -- punctuated now and again by strangled yelps recalling Adkins --  and white lightning-speed treble note squallings reached dizzying plateaus of backwoods psychosis. 

Four additional Tremors discs followed; each maintained the initial record's heady abandon while making fresh dirt fly. They are available at the link provided, as well as from Amazon and other online vendors.

Few radio-broadcast songs were accessible for review at presstime. On their Bandcamp page, Black Angel personnel explained they "just wanted to give the listeners a taste of what's to come." 

Recommended: "100 Proof Blues Boogie," "My Kitten Is Up a Tree," "Rockin' All the Time," "Danny Blade," "It'll Be Me," "Pill Popper," "Real Short Fuse," "Riot," "Call To My Reward," "Manifestation," "Tremors Bop" Radio: "Drinkin' Wine, "Big River," "That's the Way I Love," "Rockin' Bones"

Video: "100 Proof Blues Boogie"

Site

Facebook

Black Angel Productions

Bandcamp  (Black Angel)

Bandcamp (more Tremors CDs)

Original slap-bassist Slim Perkins (depicted here) has since been replaced by Lowbrow Luke.