Feature photo: Joel Faurote
For the last dozen years there hadn’t been a grittier, more uncompromising, more unrelenting blues rock band than Left Lane Cruiser. That’s pretty much the same as saying they’ve been the best blues rock band period since crashing into the scene with their Alive Naturalsound debut Bring Yo Ass to The Table.
The itty-bitty band led by guitarist and growler Freddy J IV has not let up on their hard blues formula as they’ve gathered followers and pump out a steady diet of albums at the rate of nearly one a year. Since their last one (Claw Machine) came forth in 2017, you know what that means…
Shake and Bake is the next one from the group that also has Pete Dio on drums with occasional organ from Jason Davis (who produced Claw Machine and added guest keyboards there). But for the title track just released with the video above, there’s no organ anywhere to be heard and a clear signal that success hadn’t changed what’s made the band great. If anything, they only double down on it.
The song starts with a sonic punch to the nuts and doesn’t let up from there, sounding a bit like classic ZZ Top but with a different kind of thump that grooves hard. That’s apropos, since Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Freddy J is the Midwest’s answer to Billy Gibbons: blues-soaked guitar, scruffy vocal, red beard and all. But Freddy is way fonder of the slide and he fills up his solo spot with a sample of that sweet-sounding stuff.
Left Lane Cruiser’s Shake and Bake will drop May 31, 2019 from Alive Naturalsound Records.
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