MERLE JAGGER "Rancho Los Angeles" (2006)

A brilliant, souped up mix of hot rod roots rock. Fire up your chopped top '51 Merc and hit the road with this baby! The musical equivalent of a 40 foot strip of burnin' rubber on a two lane blacktop.. (David Wilson, Surf Hillbilly Association)On paper, it might not make sense that an instrumental country band could make sounds engaging enough to hold listeners for an entire CD, but that's quite what "Rancho Los Angeles" offers. It's kind of a cross between Dick Dale's beach music and the country genre. On "Hillbilly No. 9" Mark Christian's guitar and banjo picking is so agile that the pace is dizzying. "Trash Tornado" has that needle-like electric lead that makes it seems like a wave across a Kansas wheatfield. "Ranch Party" smokes and rips its way to make three minutes sound like an extended country hoe-down. "Granny Takes a Trip" has old-style electric leads on a break-neck pace with Mark Christian's mandolin and Brandon Goldstein's drums pounding. "Three-Legged Hog" combines a Beverly Hillbillies feeling with some blistering lead guitar. Whatever one may think about the Merle Jagger genre, it is not boring. Beach country! Enjoy! (Lee Armstrong, Country Surf Fanzine)
Perhaps this L.A.-based trio of sessionaires called their exuberant electric hillbilly experiment "Merle Jagger" because "Mick Haggard" didn't have the right ring to it, but the hybrid idea is clear and brilliant -- fusing bluegrass, hard country-rock, and jazz into an instrumental cauldron that is unlike anything any of those individual genres has heard before. Driven by Mark Christian's blazing, lightning-fast electric guitar, banjo, and mandolin, Patrick Flores' bubbling bass, and Brandon Goldstein's explosive drumming, this disc is a sh*tkicker's dream, a near hour of fast-paced, raucous party music that flies in the face of much of today's ultra slick country-pop. Think Johnny Cash on speed, and you're off to a good start on the slammin' opening track, "Ranchero," and on "Ranch Party." They crank it up even more for the appropriately titled "Hillbilly No. 9," which makes you wonder how incredibly rockin' the other eight were. "In Through the Out Take" is a little more conventionally bluesy, but "Trash Tornado" is a place where surf guitar wears a cowboy hat that just won't stay on. Even when "Granny Takes a Trip," she's flyin' off her rocker. Anyone who's ever loved country-rock, modern or classic, will enjoy the trip; these guys do their namesakes, Mick Jagger and Merle Haggard, very proud.(Allmusic)

trax:
01 Ranchero 02 Hillbilly No 9 03 In Through The Out Take 04 Trash Tornado 05 Runaway Bride 06 Ranch Party 07 Granny Takes A Trip 08 Swing House 09 Papa Tooth 10 Possom Trot 11 Three Legged Hog 12 Duck Hunter
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