Track Listing > >
Drama Queens / Totem Pole / Gun Vs. Knife / Flight Of The Finch / Young Girls / Thought It Over / The World Is Gonna Break Your Little Heart / Replacement Man / Hangers On / Besa Me Mucho / I Wanted It So / Second Coming / Indian Ink / Shenanigans / Love Is Black
ONE LITTLE INDIAN RECORDS
Delivering pitch black rockabilly that sounds like a clash between Johnny Cash, Dick Dale and the Stray Cats, Birmingham, Alabama singer/songwriter Dan Sartain is someone steeped in classic Americana tradition, dark, mysterious and ultra cool.
With long player, JOIN, Sartain manoeuvres his way through fifteen songs that run the gamut from dark murder ballad to spaghetti western guitar twang to spirited pyschobilly to mariachi pop tune. The opening minute and a half DRAMA QUEENS soon sets the scene, Dan Sartain coming on like a resurrected Johnny Cash, spitting out a torrent of bible bashing polemic with vigourous fervour and fired up intensity. On TOTEM POLE, Sartain neatly drops in the theme from Rawhide amidst his galloping acoustic strums, while the tribal GUN VS KNIFE is classic rockabilly stuff, twanging guitars and pounding drum beats underpinning the snarling vocal attack, think Rocket From The Crypt by way of The Stray Cats and you'll be somewhere very close.
The mariachi waltz of FLIGHT OF THE FINCH finds Dan Sartain exhibiting his softer side, crooning gently over exuberant brass eruptions and some of the best twangy guitar action since Dick Dale last held his axe. THOUGHT IT OVER is a sixties pop song trapped in a rockabilly parallel universe, infectious riffs and insanely catchy melodies vying for pole position. The pretty acoustic campfire singalong of THE WORLD IS GONNA BREAK YOUR HEART has echoes of The White Stripes, We're Going To Be Friends, steeped in the same sweet simplicity and tender restraint, whilst REPLACEMENT MAN and HANGERS ON finds Sartain returning to snarling rockabilly, spitting out the words with insanely cool intensity. With BESA ME MUCHO, the mood is far more tender and lovestruck; a stylish and romantic ballad. Elsewhere, the likes of SECOND COMING, I WANTED IT SO and INDIAN INK reinforce the idea that Dan Sartain is a classic singer/songwriter in the Americana mould, dripping cool and pitch black intensity at every stop.
Closing number, LOVE IS BLACK ends things in suitably stylish form, twanging guitars ringing into the air. A record of style, intensity and snarling rockabilly, JOIN finds Dan Sartain on superb form, an inspired clash between Johnny Cash, Dick Dale and The Stray Cats, proof if proof were needed that Sartain is most assuredly the real deal.
BIOGRAPHY
Music solid as lead, black and airy like night draped over by Birmingham, Alabama. It slowed like a river. It throbbed like a pulsating eye buried deep in a wormy ditch. It tasted sweet as fried weeds trampled by beasts. It tasted wet as wigs of moss anchored between the rocks of that river. A child's cry rallies a chorus of fear. A mother's kiss and a father's hand germinate a seed that would one day grow to be a strapping tree fed by the water of the river. Years pass, fruit ripens, sapling becomes man. No, a preacher, an advocate says he. His bursting fruit drop to the river and are taken far beyond his voice's reach. Follow the water and listen to this showman's role in Rock N Roll's development and how he can help us better understand the complete culture of America. Finally, now this culture is ready for him as he extends it's vibrations to the rest of the world where others are primed and waiting. He is "The Man-boy"tm, "The Slayer of the Hangers-On"tm, "The Punisher of Shenanigans"tm, "The Veiny Transformer"tm, "The Ivory Godfather"tm. He is DAN SARTAIN! Expand into Dan's world with a song that grabs your soul, tenderly but firmly. Walk down Broadway with Dan and let him musically describe the "Drama Queens" trippin' and trickin' along the way. Take your favourite lady in your arms, turn the lamps down and let Dan Sartain rap in your behalf with his smooth rendition of BESA ME MUCHO. Hear Dan inside out, clear as Technicolor with a sound bigger than all outdoors. Dan Sartain is smoother than buckskin. Dan Sartain is funkier than ten cans of razor bump solution. Dan Sartain is mellower than Mister A's Cordon Bleu. Dan Sartain is as righteous as Webster's definition of truth. Dan Sartain is a man of many moods and many grooves, but more important...Dan Sartain is the "Ivory Godfather"tm and we needed one for so very long.
-Swami John Reis
LINE UP
Dan Sartain
Ben Moore
Raj Parmely
Brian Moon
Al Sartain
Mariachi Real de San Diego
John Reis
Gar Wood
DISCOGRAPHY
JOIN (One Little Indian Records>2007)
Drama Queens
Totem Pole
Gun Vs. Knife
Flight Of The Finch
Young Girls
Thought It Over
The World Is Gonna Break Your Little Heart
Replacement Man
Hangers On
Besa Me Mucho
I Wanted It So
Second Coming
Indian Ink
Shenanigans
Love Is Black
LINKS
One Little Indian Records>www.indian.co.uk
FURTHER LISTENING
Johnny Cash
The Stray Cats
The Meteors
Review date: February 2007 |
