CD review – Ryan Purcell and the Last Round Up – Pick Me Up
Ryan and Even Purcell may be from the Seattle/ Tacoma area but their hearts souls and sounds are from some whisky drenched honky tonk you’d hope to find in Tulsa, Clarksdale or Kansas City. Their new full length album Pick Me Up is so full of fresh raw energy combining the roots and elements of country, rock and blues they may have created a new genre you could call “Rocky Tonk.”
The strong eleven song set was recorded at Avast/ Greenwood studios in Seattle but feels like it came out of Muscle Shoals in Alabama. Each track features gritty guitars from the Purcell brothers and sweet piano and organ sounds from Charley Rowan and a crack rhythm section of Peter Davidson on bass and Dave McGraw on Drums, who combine to create a classic sonic akin to the Allman Brothers Meets the Black Crows. Definitely not your typical Seattle sound, which make s you wonder where they’ve been hiding.
Standout tracks include the swampy “Get It Right,” the cleverly coy two step “Worrying Kind,” and the sing along drinkin’ song “Happy Hour.” But the magic moment is when Purcell unloads all his energy on the burning rocker “Good Looking SOB,” showing he and the Last Round Up are the real deal. http://ryanpurcellandthelastround.bandcamp.com/album/pick-me-up
http://web.me.com/ryanpurcell/music/Ryan_Purcell.html
Rick J Bowen