Legendary Shack Shakers - Garage, London, 17/7/2010

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 29 / 7 / 2010

intro

At the Garage in London Daniel Cressey enjoys a manic set of blues punk from energetic Nashville-based rockers, the Legendary Shack Shakers

Shack Shaker in-chief JD Wilkes might have wandered out with a banjo and told the crowd “I hope you all like yodelling music”, but anyone believing this would be standard Americana fare was disabused long before his band finished their first song. His screams, twitches and spasms are seemingly integral to the raucus rockabilly noise that makes up the Shack Shakers' sound. After he almost immediately ditches his banjo for a harmonica the noise jumps another notch. Wilkes’s manic stage presence is perfectly complimented by his solid but relatively un-showy fellow hut botherers, notably a double bass player who doesn’t so much play his instrument but maintain his subjugation of it. As a lead singer Wilkes is amazingly watchable and his Shack Shakers are huge fun. In all this noise it is hard to pick out one particular song, or even one particular lyric. But it all drives along at a furious pace. The fact their latest album is titled ‘AgriDustrial’ gives you a pretty good idea where they’re coming from. There are elements of punk, rock and roll and blues all mixed up in what can – and has been – called part of the American gothic music tradition. At its core though this is still music that sounds like it should be playing in the bars on the wrong side of Nashville.

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