Charlie Pickett And…
Bar Band Americanus: The Best of Charlie Pickett And
Bloodshot
Remember back in the day, when you’d head out to the clubs every night, and by the end of the week you’d be broke, head aching, exhausted? So, on the seventh day, you’d rest… only to have a buddy call you the next day going “Man, you missed the greatest show last night.”
Charlie Pickett was that show.
Pickett and longtime ally Johnny Salton roared up from Florida in the ’80s, with a raw, swaggering sound bred of some 2 am junkie marriage of Son House with the Stooges, with nods to Hank Sr. and The Flamin’ Groovies (whose “Slow Death” and “Shake Some Action” are lovingly trashed here). From copping drugs in “Overtown” to ruing “Penny Instead,” Pickett and crew perfected a sound and attitude that was perhaps a decade too early. By the early ’90s bands such as the Black Crowes had taken the same blueprint and discovered a way to make it pay, same with The White Stripes a decade after that. But neither of those bands could sing “Get Off On Your Porch” and make it sound like anything but playacting; with Pickett, it was just another day.
Today Charlie Pickett is a lawyer, rarely playing out. Johnny Salton leads the Psycho Daisies, but like so many from that era, (Green on Red? True Believers?) the legacy of Charlie Pickett and the Eggs remains a regrettably unknown affair, which is a crime. But this excellent collection of material is a godsend, hearkening back to a time when howling slide guitars and insolence was our soundtrack, but even so, most of us missed Charlie Pickett the first time.
Don’t do it again.
Bloodshot Records: http://www.bloodshotrecords.com
