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Reverend Horton Heat
Revival
Yep Roc
By Marianne Ebertowski
 Maybe
not all music lovers know that Reverend Horton Heat is not a
devotional black blues singer from the Mississippi Delta, but
three white, mostly secular guys hailing from Dallas, Texas.
Vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Jim Heath, as he was named
by his mother, has been raising hell for almost twenty years
now. Together with his buddies Jimbo Wallace (upright bass) and
Colorado-born Scott "Chernobyl" Churilla who replaced
original drummer Patrick "Taz" Bentley, he has been
touring Texas and the rest of the world intensively with their
loud and whacked-out brand of country- and surf-flavored psychobilly.
Revival, their eighth album and first for Yep Roc was
recorded at Last Beat Studio in the Deep Ellum area of Texas,
just around the corner from where Heath played his very first
gig and got baptized Reverend Horton Heat by the club owner.
Produced by the Good Rev himself in co-operation with Ed Stasium
and tour manager Dave Allen, the album was done as straightforward
as possible, as a package you can take with you on the road and
feed it to the fans live. It shows a grown up Rev whose music
is still loud and annoying, but no longer "psycho."
After all the man's 45, has a wife and two kids and his mother
died a few months ago. Martini time is over and so are the times
of bales of cocaine and suicide doors, but neither of this means
that Reverend Horton Heat has all of a sudden become boring and
tame. He's just, well, matured lyrically and musically. A sense
of humor, compassion and some soul-searching is taking over from
madness, boozing and chasing girls, and it suits him well, even
though he is still light-years away from aging gracefully.
The cheerful Bakersfield-tinged instrumental opener "The
Happy Camper" seems to introduce Jim Heath, the family man,
and the title song Revival classic rockabilly stuff
- shows a man who's wrestling with mid-life crisis, who's done
"his share of stupid things" and is "just looking
for revival, that's all that I can do."
But then, the album starts to falter. "Callin' in Twisted"
introduces a relapse to mischievous behavior: calling in sick
at work after a rough night out. The mischievous path is continued
for a while with "If It Ain't Got Rhythm," a classic
trashy RHH song with a couple of teasing tempo changes in the
middle and the luscious swing of "New York City Girls."
The fun is over as abruptly as it started. The punkish "Indigo
friends," a bitter lament for the friends lost on heroin
is followed by "Someone In Heaven," a sentimental country
ballad dedicated to Heath's recently deceased mother which, frankly,
toes the line between sad and cheesy. However, I guess it's heart-felt
and personal and Heath is entitled to mourn in his own musical
way.
There's another radical mood change to "The Octopus Mode"
which is about sex, I presume. This is followed by the infectious
"Party Mad," with classic rock'n'roll piano contributed
by Tim Alexander and "Honky Tonk Girl," a tongue-in-cheek
honky tonker, as you would have guessed, where the Good Rev promises
his beloved that they will have kids and a tractor.
Not everything is brilliant on Revival. "Lonesome
Man" starts like an Elvis classic, but doesn't really take
off. Neither does "I'm Your Pet Rock," in spite of
its very nice sixty-ish guitar riffs and Buddy Holly-ish intro.
Moreover, the album's permanent zigzagging between mature laid-back
songs and juvenile up-tempo craziness is sometimes confusing
if not irritating. Take for example "Rumble Strip"
where Heath warns a sleepy driver to pull over and have a cup
of coffee or a good night's sleep instead of being a danger to
himself and others. That song fits quite nicely with the tender
love ballad "We Belong Forever," but along comes the
Good Rev sounding like Johnny Cash on a shoe box of speed pills
in "Goin' Back Home" where the "going back home"
is actually postponed to "some day" which is how the
album ends.
There are too many flaws and contradictions to call Revival
a successful coming-of-age album. It's more of a mixed bag.
Lyrically and musically, it is less excessive than earlier RHH
releases, but Heath keeps wavering between serious and fun stuff
as if he is unable to decide whether he wants to be a boy or
a man. That's a damn hard decision even at 45 and it may take
Heath another couple of CDs to sort himself out. That could be
interesting. In the meantime, Revival is a pretty good
listen for everyone who appreciates passionate and accomplished
guitar playing and who doesn't mind being taken for a ride on
a musical rollercoaster. The CD also comes with a bonus DVD containing
some great live footage and an interview with Jim Heath discussing
the bands history, filmed at the original Dallas "crime
scene."
www.reverendhortonheat.com
www.yeproc.com
Contact Marianne Ebertowski at ebertowski-at-rockzilla.net
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