Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers - Believe CD
The Legendary Shack Shakers deliver an incredible collision of revved-up rockabilly, bluegrass, blues punk and backwoods roots music on Believe. Led by the unmistakable vocals and harmonica of Col. J.D. Wilkes, this 2004 album is raw, strange and gloriously full of character, from the opening Agony Wagon and Creek Cats through Where's The Devil...When You Need Him?, Piss And Vinegar and County Of Graves. Traditionalists beware!
The Shack*Shakers throw just about everything they can find into the musical cauldron, with fiddle, banjo, accordion, resonator guitar, harmonica, double bass and drums joined by such unexpected ingredients as bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, toy piano and even a wind-up monkey. The band's wild approach to roots music is perfectly summed up by tracks such as Cussin' In Tongues, Bible Cyst, The Pony To Bet On and Fistwhistle Boogie, while their take on Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon's Help Me adds a powerful dose of classic blues to the proceedings.
Released on CD in a digipak, Believe is a 12-track blast of rockabilly, blues, bluegrass and punk-inflected roots music that refuses to behave itself. From the bizarre instrumentation and barking dogs to the furious playing and eccentric song titles, this is the sort of record that makes “genre” feel like an unnecessarily restrictive concept. If you like your roots music raw, unpredictable and slightly unhinged, the Shack*Shakers have you covered.
