Brian Setzer, Yates McKendree

×

Expand

Russ Harrington

A close-up of Brian Setzer.

Brian Setzer

Guitarist Brian Setzer has been at the forefront of two revivals of vintage music styles; in the 1980s, the Stray Cats brought straight-up rockabilly back to the pop charts, and in the ‘90s, the Brian Setzer Orchestra introduced modern listeners to Prima-esque jumpin’ swing sounds. On the new album The Devil Always Collects Setzer circles back around to rockabilly, but with a decided country edge on cuts such as the album’s lead single, a twangy cover of the Del Reeves hit “Girl On The Billboard.” With blues guitarist Yates McKendree, whose debut album, Buchanan Lane, came out this spring.

media release: Creative sparks and killer riffs are flying everywhere on BRIAN SETZER’s new album THE DEVIL ALWAYS COLLECTS out September 15 via Surfdog Records digitally, on CD and vinyl. Today (July 21), the iconic 3-time Grammy award-winner has rolled out the album’s first track and video, the blazing “Girl On The Billboard.” Listen to the song and pre-order the album HERE and watch the animated video HERE. BRIAN will support the album, his first since 2021’s Gotta Have The Rumble, this fall on his U.S “ROCKABILLY RIOT” tour starting September 27 (the dates are below).

SETZER’s guitar work is virtuosic on the new album’s 11 tracks, and his vocals deliver the clever storylines of catchy songs like “The Devil Always Collects,” “Girl On The Billboard,” “Black Leather Jacket” and “Rock Boys Rock.” Add in non-stop freight train rhythms, and you have an album—produced by BRIAN SETZER and Julian Raymond and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge—that stands with SETZER’s best. It’s always been BRIAN’s special talent to inject the roots of rock with a contemporary freshness that unites fans of rock, Americana, rockabilly, and punk.

“Girl On The Billboard” hits fast and hard. “It’s an old truckers song,” says BRIAN about the song popularized in 1965 by country music singer Del Reeves. “At first I wasn’t getting the sound I wanted until I picked up my Gretsch 1957 Duo Jet 6131 Firebird. I mean, the sound is monstrous, dirty and twangy.”

Marking his first live shows in over four years, the “ROCKABILLY RIOT” tour will kick off September 27 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ and includes stops in Nashville, TN (at the historic Ryman Auditorium), Foxwoods Casino, Cincinnati, Chicago (Waukegan) and others before wrapping in Minneapolis (his adopted hometown). For these dates, SETZER will be joined by, in his words, an “international rockabilly band, Chris D’Rozario from Melbourne, Australia and Juan Laurios from Mexico City, Mexico.” Although BRIAN has a 40-year career as a solo artist, leader of The Brian Setzer Orchestra and as a Stray Cat, he continues to play with a jaw-dropping level of vigor. Tickets are on sale at: www.briansetzer.com

“I’ve had a pretty long break, and I needed it,” says BRIAN. “I’m renewed and really want to play live again. I want to just get out on the road with this kick-ass little 3-piece band and start playing.”

He adds, “I think fans can always expect that I’m going to play the hits. I also want to play some solo guitar and little things I’ve worked out by myself. I’ve never really gotten to do that, so it’s going to be something new.”

His set lists will include “some of the favorite covers I’m doing now. I haven’t recorded it, but I really like playing my version of ‘Georgia On My Mind.’ And then with the band, I want to play a new song ‘Girl On The Billboard’ because it tells a fun story.”