T-Bird Rhythm

The place: The Cotton Bowl, the time: Halloween Night, 1981, the Event: the 'Birds open for the Rolling Stones. Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Thunderbirds have arrived! A few months later their fourth album is released. Produced by Brit Nick Lowe, of Rockpile, this offering establishes The T-Birds as the last word in Texas Blues. Across the country and around the world these 11 songs are being heard and seriously taken to heart. The Blues wave has started to crest!!

It was simply this-what was my favorite band in the whole world? One band that you would pay money to see no matter how short of money you were, one band that you would never miss when they came to town. One band you'd go back to see even if you weren't reviewing music.”

Pushed to that point, my answer was a quick and decisive one…The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Out of all the groups currently touring and making records? It's a statement I can live with quite easily, because the T-Birds have never let me down, from way back before they were making records right down to the present time.

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for the blues. Ah, but those Birds. When the moon is right, when Jimmie Vaughan is lashing out those guitar lines, Kim Wilson is blowing harp like a man possessed, Fran Christina and Keith Ferguson are letting loose on drums and bass…well, there's no band I'd rather see, no place I'd rather be.


“T-Bird Rhythm”, produced by new wave maven Nick Lowe, just might be the best Thunderbirds album yet.

“I think it is-I like the sound of it. I thought he did a really good job with the bass and drums, bring them out. In fact, maybe we all sound better!   The performance was always there, it's just that Nick has a real good grasp of the obvious,” Wilson chuckled.

The friendship between the T-Birds and Lowe goes back several years, back to when the Birds were picked to be the opening act for Rockpile (of which Lowe was a member).
“Our first three albums were produced by Denny Bruce, who is also our manager, and we all decided to try something different. We went through a lot of names--people kept shooting names and we kept going “No, no, no.” I had Nick's name in the back of my mind, but he was busy with a lot of other projects. Finally, though, he came through Austin and I said, “Do you want to produce our next album?” And he said, “Yeah, OK” and that was that.

Wilson says everything the band has gotten up to now is “just what we helped ourselves to, what we worked for and took,” The T-Birds are, after all, one of the ultimate American party bands and that message has to be spread.”

Bob Claypool--- HOUSTON POST

Tracks 

1 Can't Tear It Up Enuff (Wilson) 3:01 
2 How Do You Spell Love? (Boxley, Patterson, Strickland) 2:17 
3 You're Humbuggin' Me (Miller, Morgan) 3:42 
4 My Babe (Holden) 2:51 
5 Neighbor Tend to Your Business (Meaux) 3:22 
6 Monkey (Bartholomew, King) 3:14 
7 Diddy Wah Diddy (Dixon, McDaniel) 2:35 
8 Lover's Crime (Wilson) 2:35 
9 Poor Boy (Wilson) 3:22 
10 Tell Me (Miller) 3:43 
11 Gotta Have Some/Just Got Some (Dixon, Emerson, Talty) 4:39