Tim Easton
Album: Not Cool
Label: Campfire Properganda
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.timeaston.com

You've get to love Tim Easton; just when you think you've got the measure of him, just when you think you know what's coming next he pitches that proverbial curve ball and you're struck out.

I pretty much had this review nailed - not written on the page but done in my head. It's a rock n roll album, pure and simple. Some might go for the vintage guitars, the valve amps, recording on a certain width tape with a sixty year old microphone and maybe Easton does. Maybe he has state of the art electronic trickery that mimics the Sun studio circa 1952. Who knows? Who cares? I don't. What Easton has done with Not Cool is far more important than that. Easton knows the difference between a rehearsal space and a recording studio. Time is money, get in, get it down and get out again. 11 tracks, 5 days done. Easton captures the urgency of rock n roll and delivers it in a bluesy, swampy, rockabilly style.

Before the end of Gallatin Pike Blues I had to take a phone call that lasted just long enough to miss all of the title track and half of Knock Out Roses (for Levon). Instead of the dirty noise I was expecting there was some old time fiddle instead.

Easton has proved, once again, that he plays what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants; and that is very cool.

John 'The Jacket' Hawes