444

“Long before anyone talked about what’s come to be called roots rock, Americana, indie rock or alt-country,” this fearless foursome were—as their PR puts it—“already playing it.” And now here’s the band, in its fifth decade, still pumping out a mix of those musical forms like there’s no tomorrow. Harp player (and only original member) Mark Wenner shares the vocals with guitarist Paul Bell, bassist Johnny Castle and drummer Mark Stutso, who romp their way through such high-energy roll-up-the-rug-and-dance numbers as “Got a Lot of Livin’” (performed by Elvis Presley in the movie Loving You) and “444 A.M.” They all get down on the Everly Brothers’ “Price of Love” (“it will cost you more when you’re aflame”), especially Bell, whose slide guitar slithers from start to finish and gets solid support from Wenner’s harp and the rhythm section. They have a tradition of doing a Muddy Waters song, although they give his “Louisiana Blues” from 1950 a rather rough ride here. “Livin’ the Blues,” the disc’s other nod to the human condition in 12 bars, tells the story of a disconsolate barfly who’s been burned so bad that he’s still smokin’. “Crawfish,” from another Elvis movie (King Creole), gets an appropriately swampy treatment that’s enhanced by Wenner’s atmospheric harp. Lotta good music here.