While he never actually went away, it’s true to say MIKE BADGER has been on something of a creative roll of late. 2008 saw the release of the excellent ‘Mike Badger’s Country Side’ comp, which introduced some of his best country-related moments with The Onset to several new roots-y compositions while his short-lived, but inspired Nashville Liverpool Underground Medicine Show project mutated into a full-time outfit, Mike Badger & The Shady Trio, during 2010.
The Shadies are Mike’s most stable gigging outfit in years and quite possibly his dream band. The band’s self-titled 6-track EP from late ’10 was a fine first salvo, and it harboured some of his best compositions to date in ‘Ten Commandments of Rock’ and the gorgeously understated melancholy of ‘Everybody’s Drinking.’ Since then, the Shadies have gigged hard and built up both a fearsome live rep and an enviable catalogue of new tunes.
The band’s debut LP ‘Lucky 13’ contains a baker’s dozen of these impressive li’l devils and while they’re all original Badger-penned tunes, they reflect Mike’s love of the trail-blazing Rockabilly sounds of the ‘50s and ‘60s, even though the Shadies can’t help but sprinkle a little of their gritty contemporary Scouse wisdom over ‘em.
Opener ‘Shake It Up’ sets the tone perfectly. “I don’t need a motorcycle or a hot rod car, just a little country music and an old guitar,” is Mike’s opening gambit and while it might seem simplistic, it really is all that’s needed here. The band lock into a groove within seconds and the whole thing’s done and dusted in barely two minutes.
From the word go, the LP’S adoption of this no-nonsense, live and overdub-free approach is ideal. Rhythm section Chris Marshall and Ian Laney swing like crazy throughout, Badger’s dirty, twangy rhythm guitar drives it all on beautifully and lead guitarist Barry Southern is surely the band’s secret weapon. Aside from a series of elegant lead guitar figures, the solos he nonchalantly peels off on the laid-back ‘What You Done To Me’ and the straight-up ‘Rockability’ wouldn’t disgrace Albert Lee or Scotty Moore.
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While ‘Lucky 13”s sound is primarily strictly rockabilly, it’s ceaselessly inventive. The pared-down, punky Eddie Cochran of ‘Ten Commandments of Rock’ makes a welcome re-appearance, while the hilarious ‘Mountain Man Kidnapped By Bigfoot’ is a brilliant detour into Scouse-style Appalachian folk and Badger’s great, hiccup-y vocal on the sarky ‘Charm School’ even has an echo of Charlie Feathers about it.
The whole kit and caboodle winds up beautifully with a rubber-burning rumble through ‘Heading For Tibet (In My Cadillac)’ This song actually dates back to Mike’s days with the under-rated Kachinas during the mid to late 1990s, but it was clearly the right thing to hold it back, soup it up and wait to unleash its hot rod power here.
It’s depressing (if inevitable) that after all this time Mike Badger still gets referred to as ‘ex-La’ or any number of variations on the theme. He’s been his own man for decades now and if you do a little research you’ll discover he’s put together a formidable catalogue in his own right. ‘Lucky 13’ is both the latest instalment from this reliably great unsung hero and a great place to get stuck in if you’ve not previously had the pleasure. You don’t need black cats, horseshoes or Tarot Cards to know you’re on a winner here.
Mike Badger online
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