Soldiers of Love

Album Review

Try to imagine, if you can, what the Clarks or the dB's would sound like had they come up playing in dive bars in Bakersfield, California — they probably would've ended up with a sound something like that of the Derailers — a sharp, disciplined, but sometimes tongue-in-cheek fusion of Buck Owens-style desert honky tonk, jangly guitar pop, and rockabilly swagger. How this band found itself in the stable of a label like Palo Duro (which is explicitly devoted to Texas-style country music) is a mystery, but not one that needs to be unraveled any time soon. For now, just let yourself luxuriate in the wry "She's a Lot Like Texas" (you know, beautiful and wild and free, etc.), the sturdily rocking "Get 'Er Done," and the Chuck Berry-meets-Buck Owens blues rave-up "Hey, Valerie!." The Derailers fun version of the old Arthur Alexander hit "Soldier of Love" (which was written by Buzz Cason, this album's producer) is a sweetly kitschy gem, and if "An American Man" comes across as a clumsy Johnny Cash parody and "It's Never Too Late for a Party" comes across like a clumsy Buck Owens parody, well, it's all in good fun.