Junkyard Dogs & A Homecoming Queen

If, in hosting the launchpad at Doca’s Festival of Discovery, I’ve recently been harking on about youthful emerging talent, this unfortunately doesn’t fit into that age bracket, no matter how young at heart those good old Trowbridge boys feel, doing what they do best; rocking out and having a barrelhouse of fun with it….

A third album from those Junkyard Dogs, Homecoming Queen, which I should’ve mentioned sooner, because it drives a buzz into your step, and doesn’t come up for air. The magic of the Junkyard Dogs is hidden in the top hat of how they tackle each one of these twelve tracks with the same classic Chicago blues template. The rabbit they pull from it is the freshened, frenzied chop they bring to each one. No matter if there’s poignant matter in the original narrative, or not, it’s exhilarating throughout and a whole heap of merriment.

Without meticulous research, it seemed at first there’s covers and originals mixed, but it really doesn’t matter which are which, because it flows seamlessly, and you wouldn’t care to wonder while being too busy dancing around your kitchen to it. The title track suggests this, despite the name sounding authentic Americana, I believe it’s original; could be wrong. But, by title and seemingly apt for their forte, I thought the jump blues tune Ice Cream Man must be an original, and was surprised to find a 1953 John Brim version of it!

With this expert showmanship of electric Chicago blues, jazzy at times, Delta at others, although it’s studio recorded, it captures the very essence of a Junkyard Dogs live show, where cover choices seem to be governed only by the law; if it sounds lively and fun, play it, and play it loud!

But there’s raw blues history honoured here too, often in songs we’ve grown to associate with differing genres, due to modern popular covers. For example, the opening song, Dave Bailey Quintet’s 1961 Comin’ Home Baby, which, through Mel Tormé’s jazz cover, is more often associated with the mod scene rather than axemen of old time blues, like these dogs.

Also respectfully paying tribute to John D. Loudermilk with a driving, piano beating Tobacco Road, rather than the English garage version from the ironically named Nashville Teens, is gold, and no matter if it’s far more current, like George Thorogood and the Destroyers’s Bad to the Bone, it’s slide guitar swagger isn’t missing with the Dogs’ version.

Though the best example is surely Green Door, originally recorded by Jim Lowe in ‘56, but best remembered today by the Shakin’ Steven’s cover; either way, both were saccharine rock n roll verging on bubblegum pop, but the Dogs unleash a jazzy edge and honkytonk guitar to that tack piano, and it’s like denim never trended in 1981. The vibe of this is reworked enough to cause me to wonder what really was behind the green door, and discover doors to illegal clubs during America’s prohibition era were painted green; something I never pondered on when I was eight!

Whatever the Junkyard Dogs throw at themselves is fair game, even when they slow the tempo for Elmore James’ The Sky Is Crying or Howlin’ Wolf’s signature Smokestack Lightening, it remains uplifting, and never as mellowed as the originals.

If Little Waters’ jump blues Just Your Fool is bang on the money for The Dog’s style, neither do they falter on wider choices, like the boogie-woogie of Amos Milburn’s One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer, or when Bull Moose Jackson’s Nosey Joe tests their skills in big band, those Junkyard Dogs rinse them all with equal precision and passion, and make for a set of stylised and flowing tributes encompassed under their irresistible house style.

Actually, after I said about the originals merging, diving deeper into Homecoming Queen, it seems Homecoming Queen is the only original on the album Homecoming Queen, but I stick by what I said, because it’s got a driving honky tonk fashion which perfectly fits into this cracking album of otherwise blues makeovers and homages. Junkyard Dogs got their mojo working; listen to this, and catch them live as they gig frequently on the circuit, and it’ll work on you.

---