Some musical pairings I will never understand no matter how long
\nI live – take the duet between Elton John and RuPaul, for example.
\n(Whoof,
\nthere<\/i> goes three years’ of therapy down the drain.)<\/p>\n
So excuse me if I was a bit skeptical about any album that would
\nfeature Billy Barty – what kind of a disc would this, or could
\nthis, be? The answer comes quickly with Deke Dickerson and the
\nEcco-Fonics’s latest release,
\nMore Million $eller$<\/i>, which remains just kitsch enough to be
\nhip.<\/p>\n
Back to Barty for a minute. His role in the album is limited to
\nthat of introducing the band at the start – as well as providing a
\nfew uncredited jokes at the end. (Sample: What does a bass player
\nuse for birth control? His personality. Cute – though I’ve heard
\n“music reviewer” substituted for “bass player”.) If anything, Barty
\nis underused; in short (no, no, wait, bad choice of words…), he
\nprovides relief when it’s needed.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, there are times when the guest appearances get to be
\na little too much. Dickerson’s duet with Hadda Brooks, “You’re My
\nCadillac,” is an excellent pairing, but one wonders what reason
\nJerry Scoggins, the original voice of the “Beverly Hillbillies”
\ntheme, is on this album other than Dickerson was able to land him.
\nAnd the duet with Carl Sonny Leyland, “I Think You Got To Pay For
\nThat,” is the only real weak link in the bunch.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Dickerson and his band turn on the charm through
\nthese rockabilly numbers. Tracks like “The Hatchet Man,” “I’m A
\nWreck,” “Mean Son Of A Gun” and “Red Headed Woman” all leave little
\ndoubt that rockabilly is still a viable form of music, even as rock
\nmusic hits middle age. Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics almost make
\nyou feel like the year is 1954, and the swing is the thing as they
\ncreate a 41-minute party for you to enjoy.<\/p>\n
Especially noteworthy are the two instrumental numbers, “Rockin’
\nGypsy” (on which Dickerson concentrates his effort on the
\nmandolin-like portion of his double-neck guitar) and “Tropical
\nIsland Boogie Serenade”. Both these tracks allow Dickerson and the
\nband to really cut loose and allow the music to take over without
\nburdening them with vocals. In effect, the guitars become the lead
\nsingers – and it’s a pleasant exchange.<\/p>\n
\nMore Million $eller$<\/i> is the kind of album that might
\nintrigue you by the schmaltz that is present throughout the disc –
\neven down to the “radio spots” that make way for a few of Barty’s
\njokes and a hidden track. But one listen to the disc, and you’ll be
\ncoming back for more thanks to the musicianship of Dickerson and
\nthe Ecco-Fonics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6203],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36393","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-deke-dickerson-and-the-ecco-fonics","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36393"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36393"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}