CD Review – Jackyl “Best In Show”
“Gotta Turbo attitude /vocal chords of barbed wire, ”Jesse James Dupree declares on the title cut of his latest release. It’s an apt description of Dupree and his biker rock band Jackyl. But rough and tumble rock is not enough for Dupree, who kicks it up a notch by wielding a chainsaw onstage, cutting up a stool and passing the pieces out to the crowd. The saw made its first appearance on Jackyl’s eponymous platinum selling’92 debut on his song “The Lumberjack.”
Dupree and his band have gotten a considerable boost in visibility since his appearances as an entertainer and a business partner on truTV’s Full Throttle Saloon started in ’09. The Saloon is only open for ten days a year during the Sturgis, South Dakota Bike Rally, and Dupree and Full Throttle owner Michael Ballard seem to spend most of that time butting heads over issues including Dupree selling his own brand of liquor at the saloon without Ballard’s knowledge or consent, being shot out of cannon, and jumping off the roof peak of the tallest building on the property.
Last season, the show ran teasers about Jackyl’s current release, Best In Show, including bits from a video shoot for “Better Than Chicken” filmed at the Saloon, involving a bevy of lusty biker ladies.
Jackyl’s sound is like Motley Crue and with a similar mindset: pole dancers, muscle cars, booze, partyin’ and struttin’ manly-like figure prominently in most of the band’s output.
On the only cover, Dupree manages to slip his trademark chainsaw solo in the middle of an otherwise note for note cover of Dr. Hook’s “Cover of the Rolling Stone.” It’s the best cut on the record, as attractive to a new generation as it was when the Shel Silverstein penned tune came out in ’73.
The new release is lusty, lewd and loud, with lyrics that virtually guarantee that neither radio nor TV will ever play it. If they were savvy enough to advertise that fact in a warning label on the cover, it’d probably boost sales like being shot out of cannon.
Mighty Loud Records
july 31, 2012
By Grant Britt