American Patrol go Ameripolitan

AP General Jerry Sikorski tells me he just entered his group's "I Ain't Never Been a Cheater" in the Rockabilly classification of the Dale Watson-founded Ameripolitan's 2027 Award competition. 

Previous awards winners include Nick Curran, Kyle Eldridge, Jane Rose, The Lucky Stars, and Nic Roulette.

In reviewing AP's recent platter last May, I wrote "Sandburg's line about coming in on 'little cat feet' has no relevance here. Opening track 'I Ain't Never Been a Cheater' makes like a lion with its tail stuck in a wall socket." 

"I Ain't Never Been a Cheater" (live)

The Ameripolitan Awards nomination period is now open, and will remain so until late summer / early fall. Nominees can be put forward not only by bands themselves, but also by peers and fans.

Following the nomination term's conclusion, top nominees will be compiled. Official voting on final nominees will end in October or November. General Ballot Blaster voting will then be open until late December or early January.

The Ameripolitan Awards ceremony is set for February. 

Ameripolitan

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The Zap Guns

Space Vampire

(Self-issued)

Asplash throughout Milky Way clubs are silver saucers equipped with reverb. Having buzzed the Surf and Punk galaxies -- and hovered o'er cratered alternative orbs uncharted -- they fire alternating chiaroscuro and technicolor beams that have all manners of jumbo-headed aliens playing Twister at the discothèque.

Recommended: "Satellite," "They Live," "Geraldine," "I Don't Know Why," "Quicksilver," "Ghosts," "Dahlia," "Waiting for You"

Videos: "Satellite" (live)   "Ghosts"   "Waiting for You"   

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It's wholly likely that fleshy hulls devoid of life-spark clawed up through sod to perform a morbid ballet when this rang through chilly blackness.

From 2006 Fiendforce debut Beyond the Grave, now remastered and remixed.

Video: "Black Rose" 

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Jimmy and the Mustangs: Ducktail oeuvre

1980s California birthed a jitterbop uprising that too often was slighted, as commenters focused more on Robert Gordon, the Stray Cats, and English have-a-go heroes like Graham Fenton and Cavan Grogan. (Of course, not for a moment do I intend to dismiss their significance in the scheme of resurgent twang.)

Ronny Weiser's Rollin' Rock herculian strivings deserve wide approbation. But other West Coast names also merit credit. Like Top Jimmy, Hollywood Fats, and James Intveld.

And Jimmy and the Mustangs.

Hey Little Girl (1982) was the group's virgin wax. Though a dapper Rockabilly firecracker of above-usual gifts, Jimmy Silvers (né Haddox) also knew related night-joint strains of senior vintage. His reanimations of Wynonie Harris, Baker Knight, and Louis Jordan shouters attested to diverse appreciation. He had furious chops that cashed the check his hepcat finery wrote. 

Fellow Californian stage-demolisher Jerry Sikorski tore at strings in spectacular manners (as he previously had with Ray Campi at Rollin' Rock, and went on to do with American Patrol). Associated players arched forward with the vigor of battle-ready recruits to a jukebox campaign. 

MTV didn't have a clue - but something big was bubbling.

Videos: "Bring Back My Cadillac" (Live TV)   "I Want You To Be My Baby" (Live TV) "Let's Dance"

(In 1983, repopulated Mustangs guested on TV comedy Square Pegs.)

MCA / Curb released the 1984, self-titled EP. Two years had elapsed since the auspicious maiden platter, and some alterations were manifested: A pronounced New Wave flair had partially replaced previous vintage honor, and Marshall Rohner had assumed lead guitar duties, as Jerry Sikorski had gone on to American Patrol. (Rohner wielded his guitar like a stilletto.)

The fire remained on highest setting. 

A kinetic reading of Kenny Lewis' 1964 novelty "Bad Detective" stormed with righteous enthusiasm (just as it had when covered by the Dolls in '74). All involved here were having a ball, a feature that was also loudly apparent on "I'll Steal For Your Love" and "Stomp." "Justine," perhaps the most frantic headfirst dive included among the six tracks, turned up in the soundtrack of 1984 film Voyage of the Rock Aliens.

The affection for traditional gestures returned in the closing slide-guitar, swaybacked "It's All Over Now" revisitation. Bobby Womack, who had co-written the 1964 Bluesy ambler with sister-in-law Shirley for his group the Valentinos, would surely have nodded approval.

Videos: "Justine" (Official video)   "The Pressure's On" (Live TV)   "It's All Over Now"

Not illogically, maturity takes a hand in these 2011 (again, self-titled) cuts, though hardly in reserved fashion. Instead, judiciousness leavens proceedings, which are no less grounded in Americana inclinations than before. 

Jimmy's voice reveals a wisdom gained through life variously trying and exultant. Assembled around him as he imbues common-man musics with idiosyncratic aplomb are players cut from stout cloth: Tom Coplen (guitar), Dylan Cavaliere (doghouse), John Powell (drums), and Stefano Intelisano (keys). Fiddle and harmonica are added by Heather Rae Johnson and Guy Forsyth.

The maturity previously noted was leashed, though, for "Wanted Man;" that selection rampaged with the gleefulness of any earlier LP's entry. 

Videos: "Wanted Man"  "How Can I Miss You (If You Won't Go Away)?"   "I-35"   

The rollicking hijinx and Rock'n'Roll history command that made earlier discs estimable breathes and jumps still, on 2015's Another Round. The disc acquits itself as infectious, animated, and possessed of particular sinew. This was much more than only an undersung name from 1980s neo-Rockabilly rising anew; it testified to enduring powerfulness worth broad regard.

Horns sprawled like tuneful abettors in swinging rollick. "Roll the Dice" stutter-skipped with brim atilt. The swinging nite-spot long-legging that once notoriously marked Sinatra and his Rat Pack confreres (and later a truck driver named Presley) spun and tapped across gleaming dance floors.

"Cherry Bomb" swung straight in behind. 88s were pounded as Rock'n'Roll had its familiar, beloved way with every ear in the joint. Back in saddles were TNT players from the previous studio endeavor. And their pumped-to-nth-degree onrushes (which wisely intuited when to play it cool and when to pour it on) were precisely the launch pad required by Jimmy's outsized personality. 

He crooned, soared, and belted like Nudie-shirted gangbusters. Tribute to the Norfolk-birthed Black Leather Rebel "Ready Set Go" romped in manner not unlike "Cruisin'," its impeccably picked dash nimbly turning on silvery FDRs.

Following in brash joyfulness was a passel of tunery in moments rumbustious and, frankly, ineffable. A Sikorski-penned stroll down N'awlins boulevards, "Bourbon Street" unspools to high-stepping fiddle cavortings and bass-string articulations, as Jimmy discloses calm orations.

Fellow vinyl denizens included under-moonbeam ballads and rockers that probably resulted in furniture kicked into splintered kindling.

Established far past reasonable disputation was that seasons that intervened betwixt Hey Little Girl and Another Round had exercised no weakening; muscularity, blood connection to bygone nights' teachings, and love of hipness bombardments remained in full bloom.

So, if you read an account of '80s-forward neo-Rockabilly that makes no mention of Jimmy and the Mustangs' coolness-on-10 oeuvre, throw that book straight through the fucking window.

Videos: "Roll the Dice"   "Cherry Bomb"   "Ready, Set, Go!"   "Bourbon Street"

Ray Campi

...Rocks!

(Bear Family)

The man with "a scarf around my neck" never knew adulation of the soulless music industry, but that truth only heightened his coolness. (Besides, who ever gave a flying slapback about mainstream sanction?) Ray was Rollin' Rock royalty, and his 'round the globe hot repute ensured everlasting panthon residence.

The accompaying 36-page booklet includes personal biography by Rip Masters, Deke Dickerson foreword, uncommon snapshots, and exhaustive discography. As tracks compiled attest, the handkercief-wavin', big-bass slappin' man had the sock from Lone Star beginnings to Van Nuys culmination.

Recommended: "Caterpillar," "I Didn't Mean to Be Mean," "The Crossing," "Livin' on Love," "It Ain't Me," "Give That Love to Me," "Let Go of Louie," "The Man I Met (A tribute to the Big Bopper)," "Sixteen Chicks," "How Low Can You Feel," "Booze It!," "Rockin' at the Ritz," "Quit Your Triflin'," "Rattlin' Daddy," "Rockabilly Music," "Rockabilly Man," "Pan American Boogie" (live)

Videos: "Caterpillar"   "The Crossing"   "It Ain't Me"   "Booze It!"   "Quit Your Triflin'"   "

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Back in the Day, 1979

Tony Conn

Total Insanity

(Rollin' Rock)

The notorious Wildman's jittering zealotry comes over most emphatically during "Hard Knocks and Tough Rocks," though it certainly rages elsewhere. All one need know about the full-steam band that tears the nighttime a new ashtray is that it includes Ray Campi. 

"I'm gonna kick those big walls down!"

Recommended: "Goin' Back to Boston Town," "Mighty Mighty Dora," "Bonnie," "I Wanna Hold You," "It Shouldn't Happen," "Hard Knocks and Tough Rocks," "Ramblin' Ray"

Videos: "Goin' Back to Boston Town"   "Mighty Mighty Dora"   "Hard Knocks and Tough Rocks"   

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The Big Black Bugs

The brass-knuckled roundhouse thrown is precisely what can be expected from ex-members of the Spastiks: Headlong. Resolute. Airtight. (Bass-wrestler Jorg also slaps for the Grims.)

Video: "Spider Baby" (live 1:00 excerpt)

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Geoffrey Miller

Geoffrey Miller and the Rockin' Rousers   digital and vinyl

(Self-issued)

The dust on Geoffrey's boot heels is hardscrabble certification of the pickin' bard's genuineness. From his songcraft pen and home-folks- affable guitaring flow good-humored, sway-backed, sittin'-on-the-fence minstrelsy that could raise up a barn or dig for kicks in a neon-flashing big city with nary a care, save for that specially warm honey. 

When I glimpsed song title "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch," I guessed Geoffrey would be having a time with the Buck Owens classic. Chalk that in my loss column. Turned out to be a sprawling instrumental during which the man whose name adorns the cover shuffled sophisticated dirt-road licks and dealt them out like a cowboy-hatted croupier.

To quote Ferlin Husky in Hillbillys in a Haunted House: "He picks a mean guitar!"

Recommended: "Don't Shake My Heart," "So Goes the Nation," "Good Morning Blues," "The Whip," "You're There," "Can't Catch a Star," "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch," "California Shakes"

Videos: "Don't Shake My Heart" (live)   "So Goes the Nation"   "The Whip"   "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch"

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Todd Arita and his West End Poets

Hired Gun Trio's guitar ace Todd dedicated this wiser-for-the-aching plaint to his late mother, an act whose respectfulness finds fellowship in 3:54 of expansive, swingalong meditation.

Video: "Isn't Life Grand"

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OP ED

E.P. by OP ED

(Self-issued)

All thunderslaps are concise and race furiously, tuneful architecture stabbing gray matter.

Recommended: "Poetry About Narcotics," "Inept Pimps," "Subordinate," "Death Wish"

Video: live August 2025 (Four songs, two from above EP)

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Jinx Jones: Fire forever    

                        

Californian Jinx Jones's status as fretboard royalty is beyond dispute. Last March, he issued his 7th disc, Under the Neon Moon. 

In reviewing it at the time, I wrote: "Bow low when entering the palace chamber. Jinx pulls up a pillowed seat at the same roundtable as Barry Ryan, Chris Spedding, George Benson, and Danny B. Harvey. (From yon wall, gilded portraits of lamented heroes like Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Matt Murphy, Jimmy Bryant, Danny Cedrone, Charlie Christian, Danny Gatton, and Franny Beecher peer down on proceedings.)"

Globally famed as a breath-stealing picker both encyclopedic and devastating, he's on first-name terms with outer planets of bop nonpareil. Whereas others might have left the Rockabilly / Country trail he's ridden to fame -- to assay styles more sanctified by clef-note gray-beards -- Jinx stayed put and unburdened himself of serrated thunderbolts that parted pomps and frizzed Bettie bangs.

His journey to current renown was paved with experiences that both seasoned and informed him. 

Beginning in 1976, he backed legends Solomon Burke and Howard Bomar. He then worked in one of Chuck Berry's regional touring bands. During the mid-1980s, Jinx backed Roy Buchanan in concert.

Subsequent studio session toils led to Jinx playing both guitar and bass on the 1992 En Vogue hit "Free Your Mind."

Over these years, he developed a musical voice inclusive of the finest of Americana past, his own novel articulations lending piquance. 

With seeming ease, he divines the blood fraternity of Rockabilly, Western Swing, Blues, Jazz, and Honky Tonk, dazzling with furious note-bursts one moment and in the next, spinning glorious strands of wondrous and untethered imaginings.

Imagine an advanced fretboard textbook on 10. Listeners are surely thunderstruck by Jinx's authoritative command of labyrinthine note aggregates, lightning-fleet navigations, and esoteric chordal modes. One intuits they are in the twang-upholstered, Jazzy Court of a flat-gone monarch, one for whom fair Aoede is a favored midnight-hour ship.

Jinx's Under the Neon Moon holds gripping wonders for both his established audience and untouched ears. Ecstatic notes are bent, jabbed, and fired off at jet velocity. Fierce and wooly barn-dancin' bop drops by the bale, but gentler moments also croon.

"Hittin' the Hard Stuff," "Cadillac Love Machine," and "Million Dollar Fool" point up his flair with spring-heeled rambles and wry (sometimes self-effacing) wit. Instrumental odysseys like "Prelude Noir," "Duane's Train," and "Neon Moonlight" allow Jinx the elbow room to expand at length upon artful musings.

Honky Tonk expressiveness and rumbustious Rockabilly exhortations were colorfully integrated with ebullient bursts of Jazz-inflected phrasings. . 

Now, it's not uncommon for artists to cool down once they're a few discs into recording careers. Perhaps they lose something of their initial creative fire.

But not Jinx. Never Jinx. I don't believe he'll ever lose the fire.

Videos: "License To Twang"   "Redneck Barbie"   "Cadillac Love Machine"   "Neon Moonlight"

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 Carl Sonny Leyland

Carl Sonny Leyland's Blues   digital album

(Self-issued)

Admittedly, the Recommended list below isn't fully accurate, in that all 15 selections harbor fascinations worth appreciation. No words need be spent introducing the starring 88s maestro; Carl's renown is already global. Suffice it to say, a million roots-rhythm aspirants, going to town on a million ivories for a million years, would only be wasting their time striving to top these improvised hots and colds. Roll 'em, Carl.

Recommended: "Bouncin' Boogie," "Badland Meander," "Just Raggin'," "Deep, Dark, and Stormy," "Strolling Through Life," "Gyrate at a High Rate,"  "Enchanted Drifter," "Good King Albert," "8 Bars to Home,"  "CSL Walks the Boogie"

No related Videos were available at presstime. Here's Carl at the 2024 San Francisco Boogie Woogie festival. And here's another clip.

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The Phantom A.D.

Revenge of...the Phantom A.D.

(Rock N Rhythm Records)

He never drinks...wine. Here in the Phantom A.D.'s cobwebbed, latex-monster hood, darkness is a 24/7 proposition. Splenetic chords race like risen-from-beneath, demolition terrors, hip to the ways of lost avenues Rock'n'Roll. Swirling his cape while surfing atop a saucer, The Phantom A.D. growls enunciations that bespeak horrors good men know not. Martin Milner scrambles for exit, though Mickey "Bip Bop Boom" Hawks and Shadowman Link stick around where the action is.

Change for the strange, it comes: In months before us, the Phantom A.D. will unfurl finger-popping bizzaritude across Norman Rockwell's placid middle states.

(Backstage, respect is due Isaac Rother. The man behind this all is a prolific composer, shaper of six-string stimulations, and master contriver of monstery kicks.)

Recommended: "Revenge of the Phantom," "Spider Baby," "Chainsaw Rock," "Alley of Terror," "13 Ghosts (in Illusion-O)," "Phantom's Rumble," "Mark of the Vampire," "Gator's Grin"

Videos: "Spider Baby"   "Chainsaw Rock"   "13 Ghosts (in Illusion-O)"   "Phantom's Rumble"   "Gator's Grin"

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Magic Sands

Limón y Agua

(Hi-Tide Recordings)

Many travel agents, posters of exotic destinations adorning office walls, could doubtlessly convey you to Kona, Hawai'i's Magic Sands, reputedly the world's most dangerous beach. (Riptides, shorebreak,  and all.) But know that the present Los Angelino combo, sharing that and-still they-come tourist-spot's name, can do so faster and cheaper. Hawai'i's ancient charms roll forth in wonderment, as strings are plucked and strummed with a dignity that is all the more intriguing for its mum knowingness. Percussions of island, exotica, and Latin characters induce pleasing physical inclinations. August ambience is further embellished by piano-key judiciousness. 

Sun disappears far across blue vastness, as ti leaf-wrapped pigs roast beneath earth in kālua enterprise. Mesmeric airs waft through evening air, and hula voluptuousness undulates.

Hi-Tide has specified a June 26 release date. Orange and green vinyl versions in gatefold jackets, with collectable obi strips, will be marketed in 200-unit limited edition.

What travel agent could offer all that?

Recommended: "Hawai'i Kai," "Vaquero," "Night in the Medina," "Mahina," "Back Door," "Hawai'i Kai," "Limón y Agua," "Baja Norte"

Videos: "Hawai'i Kai"    "Vaquero"   "Payout"   "Mahina" 

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Jerry Sikorski and American Patrol

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(Self-issued)

Sandburg's line about coming in on "little cat feet" has no relevance here. Opening track "I Ain't Never Been a Cheater" makes like a lion with its tail stuck in a wall socket. That rollick and following ones teem with executive guitar navigations, piano and brass tear-it-ups, and a rhythm section tag team at once poised and dynamic. Swinging baby-moonabilly/jazz-snazz forays predominate, though affairs sometimes downgrade for pensiveness evocative of smoke-clouded, dimly lit nightspots. Plank specialist Jerry's vocals and songcraft are of their usual lofty rank. He's eminently able to loosen his collar and "go native" in grinning, growling fashion. 

You can bet your hat - we got a date Saturday with American Patrol.

Recommended: "I Ain't Never Been a Cheater," "Just Like You," "You're Everything and Then Some," "Blue by You," "It's Me You're Gonna Lose," "Tears Are Falling," "Love Fixes," "Bourbon Street," "Little Baby"

Videos: "Tears Are Falling" (clip)    

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Aaron Burnham and the Brushfires

smoke & mirrors

(Self-issued)

Four Bakersfieldian Jacks is a winning hand, according to Opry Hoyley. Sharp in Country gentleman attire, pasteboards two-step across the table. Pulling in winnings ("Come to Papa") and squiring home-and-hearth dollies - livin' the low life ain't so bad, a'tall.

Recommended: "High Life," "Runaround," "Crazy for My Daisy," "Alleycattin'," "Gussy Up," "Smoke and Mirrors," "In With the New" (album version), "I Only Smoke When I Drink," "Lonely Bottle Blues," "Salinas," "Dynamite"

Videos: "High Life"   "Crazy for My Daisy"   "I Only Smoke When I Drink"   "Dynamite"

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Brandon Wayne & His Lonesome Drifters

The broken everyman's shoulders slumped, as he leaned against the Seeburg. A nearly empty bottle of house whiskey was his sole pal. Digging in a pocket, he fed another coin into the juke, and selected Brandon's latest. For the seventh time.

Video: "Swimming in the Bottle"   

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Lil' Mo & the Dynaflos

Fronted by a siren with angelic tones capacity, a trio of doo-woppers, straight from beneath some Bop Street lamp post, urge tender confederacy. Players with PHDs in hepness spin understated merriment - with saxophone piquancy - ensuring embrace.

Video: "Let's Fall in Love"

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The Star Mountain Dreamers

Rawboned humanity thrashes in roots pugnacity; studio tech contrivances scramble down the road, lest they be stomped flat.

Video: "Trail Burnin'"  

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