The last time we were discussing Fort Wayne, Indiana’s pride and joy Left Lane Cruiser, it was a little duo with a big, grimy sound. Sometime between then and now, they’ve replaced the drummer, acquired a bass player and now it’s a tidy trio with an even bigger, brasher sonic footprint.
A guitar/bass/drums combo playing honest-to-badness blues rock is bound to stoke up comparisons to ZZ Top, and from the impressions left by the advance stream of Dirty Spliff Blues (out June 15, 2015 via Alive Natural Sound Records), the addition of Joe Bent’s fat bass and a slide guitar fashioned out of a skateboard does inch the band a tad closer to the Tres Hombres-era Top, but LLC’s style of Southern rock places somewhere east of the Sabine River, like say, the hilly northern Mississippi area. Founding members Freddy J IV (guitars, vocals) and Brenn Beck (drums, anything else he can beat a rhythm on) have found their own raucous interpretation of that sound since the Bring Yo’ Ass To The Table debut and though Beck himself has been replaced by Pete Dio there’s no need to change that sound now, even with the bottom end now rounded out.
This titular song is one that’s about extolling the virtues of bud (the herb not the beer). That’s a timed-honored tradition in both blues and rock, but perhaps not as outlaw as it used to be. Still, in advising not to mix marijuana with tobacco in your blunt, Left Lane Cruiser is graciously handing out a pro tip. And some more damned nice ‘n’ dirty rock and roll, too.
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