The Cadillac Three - 'Country Fuzz' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Bar Round Here

2. The Jam

3. Hard Out Here For A Country Boy

4. Slow Rollin'

5. All The Makin’s Of A Saturday Night

6. Crackin’ Cold Ones With The Boys

7. Labels

8. Raise Hell

9. Back Home

10. Dirt Road Nights

11. Blue El Camino

12. Jack Daniels’ Heart

13. Why Ya Gotta Go Out Like That

14. Heat

15. Whiskey And Smoke

16. Long After Last Call

Picture the scene, a dark bar, a cold beer with condensation slowly running down the glass and a group of people on the dance floor who seemed to be dancing in unison with a lot of cowboy boots on show then listen to the first track on this album, preferably loud.

This album is the bastard son of Country Rock and Southern Rock with a lot of good old fashioned Country thrown in for good measure.

Is it massively original? No. Does it make me want to get up and dance someone round that dance floor I mentioned earlier, damn straight it does!

Country Rock gets a bad name but, the reality is, as long as you put any need you might have for innovation and challenging music aside and ignore any political differences you might have then this is quite simply feel good music. The song 'Hard Out Here' sums it all all up, I honestly couldn’t decide if the bands tongue was firmly in their collective cheek or not but if it wasn’t does it really matter?

This music is the perfect soundtrack to a Saturday night in the Deep South or the mid west of America. It may not be to everyone’s taste but if you like this kind of music Cadillac Three are an excellent tight band who will give you everything you need (including what appears to be a name check for a Foghat classic) to drink your brew to and shake your ass across that dance floor.

I suspect for some people a whole album may be too much, the band are very much on the more laddish side of Country Rock, the song crackin' cold ones with the boys sums them up quite well but personally I really enjoyed this. It was a massive change from most of what I’ve listened to recently.

Cadillac Three for most of this album come across as good ole boys but they know how to write a quality Country Rock song. However, 'Label' is probably the most interesting song on the album and a revelation as to where the band might really be at. It’s clear that they are making the point labelling people is never a good idea, I’m not sure many Country Rock songs make that clear so credit where credit is due.

'Raise Hell' is the afterwards song on the album, I’m sure if it's tough to get into heaven if all you want to do is raise hell but I’m not sure the singer is actually showing any repentance, just lamenting the unreasonableness of the bouncer at the pearly gates.