The Legendary Shack Shakers

Opening with a warm riff and concluding with a maniacal howl, Cockadoodledon't is to rockabilly these days what the Reverend Horton Heat was in the early 1990s and the Cramps were in the early 1980s.

Intimately connected to the rhythm of the blues, but hell-bent on destroying rockabilly's constricting boundaries and image, the Shakers' rerelease of Cockadoodledon't with another half-dozen tracks is a rush and a push. Mark "the Duke" Robertson's doghouse bass playing and Pauly Simmonz's drumming provide easy, staggered shuffles and bluesy stomps, while JoeBuck's subtle, sparse guitar-playing reveals him as a learned disciple of Ennio Morricone and Link Wray. In between spitting out verses, Colonel J.D. blows harp, bleeding it with tones dripping fat and juicy as a Kansas City BBQ. If Tom Waits, Southern Culture on the Skids, and the brain trust behind Ren and Stimpy holed up in Johnny Cash's country cabin with an ample supply of beef jerky and moonshine, the result might sound like Cockadoodledon't -- wild, irreverent, and urgent.