CD Review
The Honky Tonk Pounders: Devil Bop!
Part Records: CD 641.002
By DJ Rockin' Roland, Norwich

15 Tracks:
1. Devil Bop, 2. Sea Of Tears, 3. Bad Hair Boogie, 4. Lovesick Fool, 5. Freight Train Running, 6. Hot Rod, 7. I Know That You Love Me, 8. Boom Boom, 9. Let's Get Rockin', 10. You're The One, 11. Right Time To Rock, 12. Rockabilly Pearl, 13. Bad Luck, 14. 6th Street Rumble, 15. Sweet Innocent.

Buying CDs recorded by unfamiliar bands is always a bit of a challenge, especially in the current economic climate with spare cash being at a premium. It's not like buying a paperback novel when you can read a short precis or consider reviews written by other literary experts.

So therefore it has to be other triggers which may cause you to part with your well earned cash, such as band members who have a known history, covers of tracks with which you are familiar or a title and cover which gives little clues as to both the rockin' style and competence of the artistes. It was the latter that gave me great hopes for this album, what a great name for a band, The Honky Tonk Pounders and with the title Devil Bop! it tells you that this album is gonna rock!

The band consists of Gunnar Fick (guitar/vocals), Marco Marquardt (doghouse bass) and Gabriel Prokscha (drums) all of whom give their whole hearted enthusiasm to these recordings and their excitement shows through these great tracks! Some three piece bands don't have the oomph that floats my boat but these guys have it in abundance! It just goes to show how easily you can miss out on great sounds such as these and also how important it is that rockin' mags such as Maggie's Blue Suede News bring these new bands to our attention.

I DJ in Europe regularly every year and if it hadn't been for Maggie I would have even missed out on these guys too! The album opens with the title track 'Devil Bop' and from the first big slap of that upright bass, 6 seconds in, all that's good in great Rockabilly breaks loose and you're hooked!

It's a real challenge to issue an album with all self penned tracks but these guys carry it off with aplomb and how many times can you say that there's not a weak track on an album? I could wax lyrical about almost all the tracks in the album but there ain't the space. I gotta mention track three, 'Bad Hair Boogie' which is an excellent poundin' jiver, awesome!

Go spend some hard earned dosh and get yourself a real slice of rockin'.

ooO - - 00000 - - Ooo

 

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