By Monk
They say that all good things come to those who wait, and in this case a trip down Highway 61 has been some 30 years in both the planning and undertaking for the four back-alley struttin’ cats who make up this particular LA rock ‘n’ roll meets old-school rivvum ‘n’ blooze combo, inspired by both the Covidications of recent years, a battle with leukaemia and the death of a close friend (and musical mentor) to get back together and complete some unfinished business left behind by their much younger selves…
Highway 61 began in the early ‘90s and tore it up on the Southern California club circuit
alongside bands like BB Chung King & the Screaming Buddaheads, Marc Ford’s Burning
Tree and The Havalinas, yet they never managed to get that elusive major label record deal. “We were young and committed to constantly rehearsing, writing, promoting, and playing stellar shows,” recalls drummer Mike Knutson. “…but eventually we got burnt out, the scene changed, and we split up.”
After the band’s breakup in 1993, singer/guitarist Frank Meyer went on to form acclaimed punk outfit The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs and play alongside the likes of James Williamson, Cherie Currie, Wayne Kramer, Sylvain Sylvain and Eddie Spaghetti, as well heavy metal hero Thor, and many more. But the blues came a-callin’ once again, and in summer 2022 Meyer reunited with the original Highway 61 members to record that album they had never quite got quite around to laying down some three decades earlier…
And the result is an album that defiantly transcends the generation-spanning gap between its original inception and its ultimate delivery, sounding both young and angry yet mature and retrospective in an equal measure that suits the sort of well-balanced cocktail label boss Malibu Lou always presents at his well-stocked aural imbibing emporium (located just south of Sunset, it you’re looking for it…). This trans-generational vibe is accentuated by the fact that the swaggering, Stones-infused opener ‘Walk On Water’ features contributions from both the late Alan ‘BB Chung King’ Mirikitani and his daughter Alana in a beautiful yet ebulliently celebratory tribute to their good friend. Mirikitani’s sublime, psyche-surf-infused lead guitar work can also be heard on the bouncy ‘Breath Away’.
I tell you what: there ain’t no such thing as a ‘Bad Day’ when Frank Meyer’s whiskey-infused vocals and soaring harp dance and weave around Andy Medway’s oh sweet slide geetar, producing a sound wrenched from the deepest, darkest gutter of everyone’s sodden rawk ‘n’f’n’ roll heart… I don’t know where Meyer’s baby stayed last night, but tonight I’m staying right here at ÜRHQ, with the stereo turned up loud, the whiskey on tap and this soul-satisfying, angst-relieving collection of quality tunes on constant repeat. Yessir, this album is weaving some pretty wicked ‘Black Magic’, enough to make me want to board that ‘Midnight Train’ (‘though maybe not to Georgia) and have my breath taken away…
Elegantly dirty stuff indeed, filled to the brim with cocksure attitude and the sort of irritatingly pleasing earworm riffs and melodies that bury themselves deep in you subconscious for weeks at a time: in fact, nothing less than you would expect from the expert rock ‘n’ roll barkeep down at the Rum Bar…
- ‘Driving South‘ is out now.
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.