ROOTSVILLE CD REVIEW by Mr. Blue Boogie

From Steve Hooker, our UK rockabilly and blues friend comes an interesting compilation of rockabilly tunes! Shrink To Fit Volume 2 is another great album with 10 Red, Hot rocking tracks on it. 

On this compilation there is room for all kinds of rockabilly!  From the neo-rockabilly sound of Mr Hooker himself (Snake Eyed Mama) to the a more noisy sound of the Atomics (C’mon Everybody) and everything in between.

Among the collaborators on this disc you’ find bands like Roddy Radiationand The Bonediggers with their excellent Black Leather Jacket!  A tune that might be a little bit out of place amongst the rest due to the fact that it comes with a more sixties vintage sound. For those with a good memory or a degree in music history  Roddy Radiation is nobody else then Roddy Byers from the Specials (and later the Tearjerkers) who toured the UK club circuit in the early nineties with his Bonediggers.  

Another bname that rings a bell is the legendary Darrel Higham and his band The Enforcers. Darrel Higham is best know for his collaboration with the good looking Imelda May, the Dublin born chick that sounds like Billy Holliday and performs like a wild rockabilly chick from the fifties. The Jooks of Kent is another interesting outfit on this album.  Their rockabilly, roots rock sounds a little bit like the Radiotones but comes with enough punk and Rawk & Roll influence to bring it with a different attitude.   Closing down the album is Steve Hooker who opened it as well!  His semi instrumental tune Cotton Pickin’ is a bit more fierce then what we are used to hear from him on album but boy it’s a hell of a tune.

Shrink to Fit Volume 2 is one of those compilations that you easily can put under the Christmas three to please one of your rockabilly friends! But I’ll bet that you’ll buy it and simply keep it for yourself instead, cause this one really rocks.

Mr Blue Boogie