The Wildcards (UK)
Raising Hell
WILDCD 002
© The Wildcards 2007
Vince Lee - vocals / guitars
Martin Vowles - guitars / backing vocals
Al Wallis - bass / backing vocals
Kevin Crowe - drums / backing vocals
English blues sensations The Wildcards have produced an album of startling originality, entertaining lyrics and amazingly-accomplished tunes. An undeniably-cool blend of jump jive, blues, jazz and rockabilly with great guitar tones and killer beats.
The band have recently been wowing audiences across Europe suppoting the legendary Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Features a deluxe 12-page booklet, over 40 photographs and detailed track information!
Review...
Listen to the entertaining lyrics or just let yourself go to their urgently-swinging, amazingly-accomplished and undeniably-cool blend of jazz, jump jive, blues and rockabilly, given a wickedly ‘voodoo’ edge with Louisiana and Caribbean influences bubbling up all over, and you can’t fail to be bowled over by its startling originality. This well-recorded CD (a worthy successor to fine 2004 debut “On Fire”) captures their thrilling many-layered live sound so well that new delights emerge with every playing and you get the feeling it’s never going to be far from your record player.
Their impeccably empathetic playing is enhanced by great arrangements and a unifying concept feel symbolised by the eerie cover drawing of four leering skeletons playing instruments atop an old-style hearse providing fair warning of the dark delights within. At the album’s greasy heart lies a magnificently woozy version of the blues standard ‘St James Infirmary’ with an electrifying half-way lurch into a musical mayhem worthy of Screaming Jay Hawkins or Louis Jordan. Yes, it’s that good.
With a striking air of brooding menace, lots of dark humour and an entertaining musical and lyrical wit way beyond most bands, the Wildcards are surely poised on the edge of real acclaim. Listen to the sophisticated calypso and Latin touches on the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ ‘Hell’, the deliriously carnivalesque version of Louis Jordan’s ‘Run Joe’, the scarifying ‘Hoodoo Preacher’ (composed by harmonica-player Gary Primich, with whom they toured last year), and the suitably staggery rhythms of the band original ‘Drunk’. There isn’t a weak track on the album, their own material easily matching their well-chosen covers, though they may have saved the best till last with the epic Vince Lee original ‘Hard Luck Tale’, featuring eerie keyboards from guest Paul Harris. A class act.
Dave Kingsbury - Writer for Blues Matters, Blues In Britain.
"An Essential CD"
Back To The Roots, Belgium.
"CD of the year contenter"
Blues Matters! , UK
Review or comment on this CD!
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