Skinny Molly

Haywire Riot

If you are going to play Southern rock with big balls and a booze and sex sodden sound it probably helps if you and your bandmates are alumni of the best bands to come out of the area. Mike Estes comes from Lynrd Skynrd and Jay Johnson was with Blackfoot and the Southern Rock Allstars so I guess that covers that side of things.

The album positively sizzles with the sort of teeth-clenched Southern vocal and the band belt out some truly great sounding Southern rock that could be from the likes of Skynrd or The Allman Brothers but the songs are strong and individual and they manage to move into their own space away from those greats.. 

From the clanging opening to ‘If You Don’t Care’ and through ‘Too Bad To Be True’ they tear it up with real joy and fire but when they slow down on tracks like ‘Devil In The Bottle’ – this one could be Skynrd or Steve Earle at their best – they sem to crank the intensity and the story telling up more than just a notch. The opening line of ‘Two Good Wheels’ – “Well I got three good chords and two good wheels” – is one of the best Country lines I have heard in years and the number really hums with the feel of a man who is just hanging on for all he is worth.

‘Judge Parker’ is a huge diatribe against the kind of self-serving judiciary that America is infamous for and ‘Bitin’ The Dog’ is the number Guns & Roses wish they could still make.
I love ‘Lie To Me’ – one of those songs that you feel as it tells another story of a man at the end of his street, looking back on his dreams and just wishing that his girl would just lie to him and make him feel better. Great playing and a fabulous vocal.

They don’t do pretension or ‘fashion’ but they do do down home feelings, none more than when Estes bellows “Hey rock star wontcha shut up and rock!” 

When rock is at its best it is about things that we can relate to and Southern rock is even more so. This is Southern Rock at its peak – no bullshit and no superstars. Now, where is that bottle of Wild Turkey?