Big Guitars from Texas
That's Cool, That's Trash

LA RECENSIONE

I pick up this record and take a moment to look at the cover...
Instantly, not two, not three, but... four guitars catch the eye, just to let us know it's not a Latin record.
Then the band is called Big Guitars from Texas with the outline of the state of Texas just below, voilà, more emblematic than this is impossible.
And then, as a background to the photograph, scraps and metal exposed to the sun.

Even before putting the needle on the record, I realized I'm in front of a blues album, somewhat desert-like and sun-kissed, and clearly, the listening does not betray much. Even today, the suit perfectly makes the monk.
A first grotesque track that seems (but it's my impression) to mimic the twists of the '60s (Twist and Shout and the like, to be clear), but then it goes straight to draw heavily from the boogie and country/garage cauldron of those years, even including a medley that among others comprises Ghost Riders in the Sky.
Groovus and Sunburn flow smoothly, the latter perfectly in tune with its title, arid and desolate; the end of the first side Alamo Beach almost surprises, a brief episode that unexpectedly fits a boogie riff in 5/8 perfectly.

Speaking of riffs, Holiday For Hoss remains my favorite, in my opinion, the highest moment of the album, and even the minor boogie of Hardy Street closes this record worthily.

Entirely instrumental, the recreated atmospheres recall the years of the Shadows and Johnny Cash. The names on the back cover are not very well known, most are from Austin, although the drummer Mike Buck catches my eye, demonstrating enviable ease in the genre.

Now that I've written about it, you have to look for it, because I found almost nothing online, YouTube gives me only one video, and Spotify probably doesn't consider it. A record likely of very low popularity, forgotten and certainly not very innovative.

Randomly written review. It could have been avoidable, but the record wasn't there.