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The rolling, shuffling blues of 'I Work Alone' aptly describes the solitary, soulless
life of a trucker on endless, roads.

The instrumental 'Love and Peace', originally recorded by the Jazz Crusaders in
1968 is a delightfully mellow, lyrical guitar and Hammond organ piece, that simply
floats, into the ears.

'Teaser', is from the score of the John Carpenter film, 'Vampires'. It is a loud, crashing
and pounding guitar led rocker, as would have been heard in the eighties.

Willie Dixon's slow burning 'Groaning The Blues', recorded by Otis Rush in 1957, is
here, led by a mournful, wistful harmonica entwined with an equally melancholy,
lyrical guitar.

Recommended!

Brian Harman

Rusty Ends—Roadhouses, Juke Joints and
Honky-Tonks—Earwig Music EWR 4986

Of the musical elementals that Rusty, in his life in
Kentucky and the south has absorbed, he displays
them here, on this, his new and thoughtfully toe-
tapping album.

The band are; Rusty Ends, vocals, guitar; Dave
Zirnheld, vocals, electric bass; Roosevelt Purifoy,
piano and organ; Wayne Young, 2nd guitar; and
Gene Wickliffe, drums. The album was recorded,
at the Delmark Studios, in Chicago.

The opener, 'Bad Like Billy The Kid', is a welcoming
laid-back shuffle. 'The Same Thing', has slightly more urgency. The comforting,
warm, intimate feel of Lonnie Mack's 1988 'Honky-Tonk Man', is continued with the
richly inviting, sonorous guitar tones of 'Lost, In The Blues'. The inviting, piano led
foot-tapping 'Rockabilly Train', urges from your chair.

'Angels Sing The Blues' is a sombre, melancholy lament for the souls lost to violence,
poverty, drugs and social indifference.

Koko Taylor 's 1969 '(I'm) A Little Mixed Up', is an upbeat, gently, grooving shuffle
with an enticingly picked guitar, whilst, 'The Worm's Turned', features a richly,
picked almost surf guitar that coasts you along. 'Midnight Screams' is a sad, late
night tale of love lost and its costs.

Ray Sharpe's 1959 Texas blues, 'Linda Lu', is a lively, piano and guitar-picking led
shuffle. 'Lie To Me', is a slow, gracefully swinging blues, and 'Thing Called Love', is
infused with an element of funk as the organ, gently burns and sways.

The gently inviting and swaying, 'When a Geezer Plays The Blues', is humorous tale
of a bluesman's life on the road and interestingly the excellent slow, dreamy
instrumental 'Bourbon Moon', is Rusty's tribute to Santo and Johnny's 1959