Sold Out

Album Review

If you've never heard of Big Shanty, you may find that this album makes you feel a little bit dumb. How can someone with this kind of voice, guitar chops, and songwriting ability have stayed off your radar for so long? Ignore the press kit hype about how he "mixes retro with techno, Delta blues and club beats" — what matters is that he makes blues-based roots rock that combines the density and nourishment of the best meatloaf you've ever eaten with the jump-up energy of a juke joint Saturday night. His slide playing isn't especially acrobatic, and his voice isn't especially pretty — but both are eminently functional, and his grooves are irresistible. On Sold Out he really hits his stride on both "Love Train" (which sounds like a collaboration between Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tom Waits, and a rejuvenated John Lee Hooker), and the minimalistic but exceedingly fun "Tybee Town" (which features an unlikely combination of slide guitar and sitar). On "Walking Shoes" he sounds startlingly like Motörhead's Lemmy Killmister; on the album-closing "Uncle Sam Go to Rehab" he calls out America's government and, really, its entire population to bracing effect. Exhausting and brilliant.