Reviews

Inaugurating a new quarterly Saturday night at The Retro Bar, Miss Jinny Presents, The Tailshakers have been gritting the boards of venues for a fair few years with their garage-fume injected take on rockin’ classics.

The Tailshakers (c) Stu Gibson

Stripped down about as far you can get without being a totally traditional hillbilly/rockabilly band (that means being drummer-less), The ‘Shakers are ‘simply’ double-bass, stand-up drummer - a la The Stray Cats - and one guitarist, and kick out a jam-busting racket that dumbfounds many a doubter.

Racing up from the bathroom apparently after a too hectic bout of the seven day weekend as compere Rosie Lugosi announces the band, singing drummer Captain Fido leads them slam into their motavatin’ stampede through hills version of All I Can Do Is Cry. Much covered from Wayne Walker’s fifties original right up to and beyond Mike Ness of Social Distortion’s version, but rarely bettered as by this trio.

The Tailshakers (c) Stu Gibson

Speared and spurred on by Danny Ace’s spare no-one guitar going from grinding, guttural grimace to delicate, slinky dew-drops as it projects and slices through Cast Iron Arm, One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette, Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor, Folsom Prison Blues and surf-classic kicked into wipeout on a wave of Johnny Thunders snarling squall that is a raucous run-over of Pipeline.

Whether you know the songs as well as these guys or not, The Tailshakers time and again tap into the rocker inherent in their audience, making it a shame time constraints mean they can’t close with their masterful re-working of Manchester punk chestnut ‘Ever Fallen In Love?’ – coupled with it being a crying shame we don’t see enough of this band that are right on our doorstep.