Johnny Carroll

Essential Classics, Vol. 362

(Essential Classics)

Johnny's beneath-strobes paroxyms came as close to grand mal epilepsy without requiring Dilantin as anyone's in the 1950s. His frantic spectacle, locks flying and acoustic manhandled, was documented in 1957 drive-in carousal Rock Baby Rock It. His Hot Rocks band shared his urgency and untethered madly dashing racket that provoked teens to gymnastic abandonment. In the 1970s, Johnny joined fellow groundbreakers Ray Campi and Charlie Feathers at Ronny Weiser's Rollin' Rock.

Recommended, disc one: "Rock Baby, Rock It," "Hot Rock," "Crazy Crazy Lovin'," "Wild Wild Women," "Trudy," "That's the Way I Love"

Recommended: disc two: "The Swing," "Hearts of Stone," "You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often," "Sexy Ways," "Crazy Little Mamma," "Why Cry"

Video: "Crazy Crazy Lovin'"  (from Rock Baby, Rock It.)

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Andy Starr

Essential Classics, Vol. 360

(Essential Classics)

Andy's particulars won't be located in the top rank of pioneering-era annals, but he was possessed of notewothy capacity and waxed numbers that bear recollection. Affable spiritedness rollicked in his finer exertions. They were natural in a moment when jaunty and jukin' airs were the celebrated norm. In the 1970s, his "Dig Them Squeaky Shoes" was covered by Colin Winski for Rollin' Rock.(Colin's resurrection featured a 'squeaking' sound effect; per lore, it was achieved by Rollin' Rock impresario Ronny Weiser rubbing Gene Vincent's leather jacket.)

Recommended, disc one: "Rockin' Rollin' Stone," "Give Me a Woman," "Dig Them Squeaky Shoes," "Round and Round," "One More Time," "Knees Shakin'"

Recommended, disc two: "Rockin' Reelin' Country Style," "Evil Eye," "No Room For Your Kind," "Do It Right"

Video: "Dig Them Squeaky Shoes"

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Daddy Rabbit

Steal Some Time

(Self-issued)

Melliflousness typifies poignant passages whose steel is implied. One relishes uplifting mood airs and magnificent harmonizing, as pleasantness always warms the heart. All-around instrumental redoubtabilty engenders sunbeams. Reminds that life is good.

Recommended: "House Rock," "Got It Bad (So Bad)," "Then There Was You," "Need You So Bad," "Hush Hush," "Rolling Rock," "(Gonna Make You) Love Me," "Steal Some Time," "Another Beautiful Mystery"

Video: "House Rock" (live)

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Sugar Mama's Revenge

Poison Never Tasted That Sweet

(Rockin' Rollin' Products)

Surprises will not be located here, nor jarring departures from R&B-tipped Rock'n'Roll orthodoxy. That we've heard like good-timing through decades only means we can recognize a prized friend. All hail fresh onset.

Recommended: "You Did Me Wrong," "Ring A Ding Dong Dandy," "Keep On Rockin'," "I Idolize You," "Bow-Legged Daddy," "High- Class Man," "Big Boss Man," "Don't Pass Me By"

Video: "Don't Pass Me By"

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Bettie and the Rurals

To the Great Women of Rockabilly

(Self-issued)

A more high-stepping and reverential tribute work defies imagination. Landmark rousers by Sparkle Moore, Janis Martin, Barbara Pittman and other skirted Hell raisers of the Golden Age are revisited with barn-burning dispatch. A lesser band would have failed this undertaking, whereas Bettie and the Rurals ignite spectacularly. Now as then, girls will be girls - a delightfully perilous proposition.

Recommended: "Rock-A-Bop," "Everlasting Love," "Drugstore Rock'n'Roll," "Saturday Jump"

Video: "Drugstore Rock'n'Roll" (live)

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Jared Petteys & the Headliners

"Get Out of My Own Way" b/w "You're My Baby"

(Rumble Road Records)

Always welcome is blues-grounded rockabilly that charges out of speakers intent on top-volume ruckus raising. That a trio can produce such massie sound is cause for wonder. They do so with confidence, certain of their place in the sound that changed the world.

Retro Sonic released this single last October. Robert Pilson's Rumble Road now markets it.

Video: "Get Out Of My Own Way"

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The Blues Vultures

You Can't Ruffle My Feathers

(Self-issued)

This doesn't comence so much as erupt. Featured loudly and proudly are brawny guitar riffs that validate the group's citation of lofty influences including the Rolling Stones and New York Dolls. A boldly strutting enterprise worthy of salutes by raucous masses, its scramble wouldn't have nearly as much impact were it not for all players' sweat.

Recommended: "Rock Scars," "Electric Scars," "Hang Me Out To Dry," "Step Aside Mr. Hyde," "You Can't Ruffle My Feathers," "Can't Stop Talkin'"

Video: "Electric Stars"

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