The Honey Badgers – Shakin’
Independent
http://www.thehoneybadgers.net
13 Tracks – 48 minutes
The six piece band from Adelaide, Australia debut album was recorded over a three-year period. The band was selected by their Blues Society to represent them in the 2023 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. They became one of six finalists in the competition, making them only the second Australian band to reach that peak of the event.
The band first formed in 2016 as a four-piece band led by Benny Brown and Nigel Bourn. The band expanded to six musicians, but in 2021, Benny decided to quit live music and had to be replaced. The current line-up for this album is Nigel Bourn on tenor sax, Peter Hollow on lead vocals and guitar, Peter Nixon on backing vocals and bass, Geo Heathcote on baritone sax, tenor sax and harmonica, Tim Frears on vocals, trumpet, flute, alto & tenor sax, and Mario Marino on drums. Benny does appear as a guest on one track.
Peter sings I “keep to tryin to make it right, but all you do is want to fight” on the opening track, “Broken Boy Blues”. On the horn-driven title song, he is driven wild every time she gets to “Shakin'”. The album slows down with a slick guitar lead as he declares “Since You’ve Been Mine” “my troubles have been through”. He notes that he has been “Drinkin’ and Thinkin'” but “just can’t get over you”. Peter has another strong guitar run mixed with the horns.
On “Don’t Touch”, he tells her to “take your fingers out of my wallet, nothing there belongs to you”. Geo’s harmonica sails through this song. They get some funk going as they sing about the man from down south, the “Delta Man”. Things start rocking as he explains that she “may look like an “Angel in Red”, but she is the devil in bed”.
“The Woman I Love” “tells me she loves me. She’s as fine as can be.” has a touch of rock ‘n’ roll with the harmonica trading off to a sax run. They slow things down again with a very bluesy guitar solo leading into Peter declaring that you have left me “Cold and Sore” followed by a jazzy sax solo. Next, he states, “I got a dollar in my pocket and gonna buy a drink and “Gunna Light Another Cigarette”.
He exclaims ” It does not matter “What You Do” to me when your arms are around me tight.” “Black Cat Bone” is presented as an instrumental solo. The album concludes with “Bang Bang” which lets Peter have one last guitar solo amongst the horns.
As stated throughout, the albums songs are very horn-drenched. Some fine sax mixed with Peter’s guitar and solid vocals do provide some quality songs. If you are looking for pure blues, this is probably not an album on your radar. But if you enjoy blues rock with substantial horn arrangements, then you may find this to your liking.
