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Marti Brom's Feudin'
and Fightin' |
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Marti Brom's Feudin' and Fightin' (Goofin') Brom, arguably rockabilly's best female vocalist (and don't argue with me here - no one even comes close), stretches herself beyond rockabilly on these six tracks, which ultimately prove more inventive and interesting than most of the stuff coming out these days. Backed by the ten-piece Cornell Hurd Band (whose new album A Stagecoach Named Desire should be out any day), Brom is able to capture a larger sound here, suitable for the size of her voice. The title track, Feudin' and Fightin' covers a Dorothy Shay
tune. Shay, who rose to fame in the late '40's as the "Park Avenue
Hillbillie," mixed an uptown image with novelty hillbilly tunes.
As quoted in Third Coast Music, Hurd calls the style "uptown hillbilly
shit" or "hillbilly music for swells." And swell it is. The other
five tunes stay true to the style, including Tennessee Ernie Ford's
Kiss Me Big," Hank Penny's Lovin' Tennessee Style, Vaughn Monroe's
They Call it the Mambo, Irving Berlin's Moonshine Lullaby, an Like Shay's Feudin' and Fightin', Red Ingle's Tim-tayshun (also released in 1947) has the same novelty country, "uptown hillbilly" style. Tim-tayshun, a parody of the then-popular tune Temptation was a tour de force of comedy, musicianship, and crazy vocal stylings that still manages to sound fresh and funny 53 years later. The same can be said of the tunes on Feudin' and Fightin'. With the strength of Brom's vocals (especially on the title track and Moonshine Lullaby) and the brawny, sprawling style of Hurd's band (a veritable who's who of musicians in Austin), Feudin' and Fightin' rises above the status of novelty album. Figures that a talent as large as Marti Brom's wouldn't be satisfied singing rockabilly standards. Look out, rumor has it Brom's next project will be an EP of Eartha Kitt's material! ***** Marti Brom's Feudin' and Fightin' can be ordered at Hepcat Records.
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What
may be the most interesting rockabilly album this year is not really
rockabilly at all. 
d
another Shay tune, Flat River Missouri.