Vintage Review: Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers’ Believe (2004)

In the early ‘80s, Jason & the Nashville Scorchers shook up the staid country music establishment with a hard-rocking blend of adrenaline-fueled punk energy and reckless country soul. Two decades later, Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers have arrived to finish the musical revolution begun by Jason and his crew, tilting the city on its collective ear. Nothing could have prepared the “Music City” for the band’s self-released 2002 debut – Cockadoodledon’t – reissued a year later by Bloodshot Records. A manic collection of rockabilly, blues, and country twang delivered with the intensity of a mad dervish, Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers announced that it was a force to be reckoned with.

Believe proves that while they may not yet be legendary, the band sure knows how to shake the shack. Toss this slab o’ metal into your CD player and be ready for an old school tent revival to explode from your speakers. Shack*Shakers frontman Col. J.D. Wilkes is ready to preach the gospel of rock and roll to your lonesome ears; the rest of the boys ready to save your soul with their roots-rock hymnal. Believe opens with a train whistle, the choogling beat of “Agony Wagon” warping into an Arabic guitar line beneath a tale of a tortured soul doomed to forever ride the mythical “hellbound train.” Guitarist Joe Buck adds a twangy, Dick Dale-influenced guitar riff beneath Wilkes’ vocals, the lyrics delivered with all the fervor of a Southern preacher standing in the center of a Middle Eastern bazaar.

The album rolls along like a runaway hot rod fueled by whiskey and riding along a tightrope made of discarded guitar strings. “Piss and Vinegar” is a juke-joint rave-up; Wilkes’ echoed vocals punching through a fog of bluesy guitars and staggered drumbeats. Driven by a Carl Perkins-styled rhythms and hazy, psychedelic fretwork, “County of Graves” is another tragic tale, part prayer and part sermon with a drunken soundtrack. “Cussin’ In Tongues” is a mutant truck-driving song, a cross between Dave Dudley and the Butthole Surfers, Pauly Simmonz’ massive percussion work, and Buck’s stylish six-string riffing pushing the rig towards a crashing finish. If your spiritual quest is in need of some cheap thrills, let the Colonel and his boys guide you towards the path of righteousness with Believe. (Yep Roc Records, released 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine