Thursday, September 27, 2007

CD Review: The Reverend Organ Drum

By Todd Maternowski

The Reverend Organ Drum is the self-titled first album produced by Dallas' own Greatest Cover Band in the World. With a playlist seemingly ripped straight from the mid-1960s, the Reverend Organ Drum has provided hardcore music fanatics with an album of relaxed, mature covers of pre-1970 R&B soul standards, with some lounge, blues and TV themes thrown in for good measure. Fans of the ROD will not be surprised at the song selection: of the 17 songs, only two have vocals, the rest being pure instrumental, a mix of Booker T & the MGs, spy movies, and Dean Martin covers.

The album kicks off with "Moovin' and Groovin'," a twangy surf-rock ballad that should sound familiar to fans of the Reverend Jim Heath's other, slightly more popular band. The surf gives way to blues on the next track, "Strollin' With Bones", a fast-tempo blues song with strong guitarwork from the Rev that eventually gives way to organist Tim Alexander's churchy organeering.

The third track on the album is the first of many TV or movie-inspired covers, this particular one being "A Shot in the Dark" -- comically menacing theme music to the second Pink Panther movie, full of silly 1960s spy-spoof vibe, and again with some lightning-fast organ and guitar work. After this, the manic energy of the album is drained out by track #4, "Night Train": a lumbering, molasses-thick organ-dominated blues song with some heavy-lidded stripper music sleaziness (always a favorite with the ladies at ROD's live shows). "Night Train" is followed by "Honky Tonk", a straight-up Texas blues song with light organ played over the pronounced triple-step swing beat.

The album does not bother to settle there: rather, it continues to range all over the musical map, touching on the dynamic, brass-ballsy "James Bond Theme" before changing the tone once again with "Bim Bam Baby," the first track on the entire album with actual vocals. It's a fun, peppy song with very Horton Heat-esque lyrics sung by Heath himself, although perhaps with a bit more swingy lounge attitude than most of his usual songs.

After that charming little ditty, the band swing back into full-on Hammond-and-Gretch mode with "Can't be Still" --complete with a tribal, Dick Dale-sounding drum solo in the middle by the ever-friendly "Doctor" Todd Soesbe-- before slowing it down once again with the spy-surf serenade "Experiment in Terror." The energy is brought right back by the next two tracks, "Mardis Gras Mambo" --a 50s style peppy mambo-- and "Theme to Route 66."

The next track --and even after two dozen listenings, I have to keep reminding myself that these are cover songs-- is one of my favorites on the album, the amazingly catchy Booker T song "Hang 'Em High," a Shaft-meets-Lee Van Cleef 70s style funkified cowboy theme song. The same goes for the final track on the album, also a Booker T favorite, "Time is Tight."

The Reverend Organ Drum keeps listeners on their aural toes, slowing the tempo down with the sleepy, bluesy "Black and Crazy Blues," then cranking it up with "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" and "C Jam Blues", before bringing it back down to lazy soul with the appropriately-titled "Groovin'." "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" is just the second track on the album with actual vocals, and fittingly, it sounds like Heath is having a blast singing it, infusing the Dean Martin classic with an overload of Rat Packy attitude.

At the heart of the album is the overall, long-forgotten sound of southern soul, with it's emphasis on the all-important groove over individual instrumental prowess. Harkening back to the "Stax Sound" --named after the hit-making studio of the early to mid 1960s-- the Reverend Organ Drum has shown incredible originality and musicianship.

Related stories

• Reverend Organ Drum’s Hi-Fi Stereo (officially) out January 8 (Jan. 4, 2008)

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