Red Stick Ramblers
My Suitcase is Always Packed
Sugar Hill
More good times roll as another American band revives the roots of country, rock, and honky-tonk. Red Stick Ramblers snuck out of Louisiana with a suitcase full of the tunes that used to fill the 250-watt rural radio waves until Clear Channel swallowed the market whole.
Opening the party we find foot stomper “Je T’aime Pas Mieux,” a sardonic love song in Cajun French that might translate as “I love you better (than whoever I’ll meet next)…” We follow quickly with a string of equally skeptical songs that come over in clear, unaccented English. If there’s a multicultural element in sad songs about love doomed to failure before the first kiss, these guys have nailed it. A sparingly laid back “Lay Down in the Grass” shows a less energetic side of the band, but all in all they slide easily between the squeaky Cajun fuddle of “Nonc’ Yorick” and the blue-eyed country of a young Hank Williams in “Goodbye To The Blues.”
This is an exciting bunch of roots rockers that might join you at the bar and offer a beer or a friendly fight in the parking lot. I love these guys…
Sugar Hill Records: http://www.sugarhillrecords.com
Red Stick Ramblers: http://www.redstickramblers.com • http://www.myspace.com/theredstickramblers
