Jimmy Thackery began his career as a member of The Nighthawks. After 20 albums with them he formed his own group "Jimmy Thackery and The Drivers" and recorded twelve more albums. He has also collaborated with Tab Benoit and released two "Whiskey Store" albums. He is a profilic road warrior. His newest album on Telarc is more than just another Jimmy Thackery album.

Jimmy Thackery is a great lyricist and starting out he gives us three new songs that he has written. On "Hit The Big Time", "How Long", and "Fifteen Minutes", Jimmy creates the kind of blues rock that has made his live performances so exciting. It is what we have come to expect of Jimmy.

Then comes "Hobart's Blues". Jimmy simply sets the rhythm up and proceeds to lay layers of inspired guitar work all over the place. Sustained notes and phrase changes make each verse fresh, as Jimmy's guitar playing hasn't sounded this inspired in years.

We know that Jimmy loves the sub-genre that we refer to as surf rock, the instrumental music first invented by the "Ventures". On "Daze In May" Jimmy creates a beautiful vision of a beach, a girl and a tiki bar, it makes me feel like I'm on vacation. Bassist Mark "Bumpy Rhodes' Bumgarner, and drummer Mark Stutso help complete the vision.

On "Blue Tears", Jimmy comes up with a country sound, the song reminiscent of "Old Folks at Home" features a beautiful vocal. "XXX Wife" gives Jimmy a chance to jazz it up a little on his guitar solos. Jimmy rocks out again on "One or The Other". "Solid Ice" is an instrumental tour de force as Jimmy dramatically builds on his guitar solo. "Blue Tears Reprise" is an instrumental version of the fore mentioned song and it is soothing to the pallet like "sorbet". It's insertion here prepares us for Jimmy's version of Jimi Hendrix's "Who Knows", which is just wonderful. Jimmy's guitar screech's out the sustained high notes while the two Mark's "mark the time".

The liner notes are nicely written by Art Tipaldi, who agrees that this is one of Jimmy's most inspired albums.

Richard Ludmerer
Director, The New York Blues & Jazz Society
ricdale2@yahoo.com