Cowboy Mouth: Go!

Cowboy Mouth drummer/lead vocalist Fred LeBlanc has been quoted as saying, "If the Neville Brothers and the Clash had a baby, it would be Cowboy Mouth." Fans have described a Cowboy Mouth performance as a Southern gospel revival sans the religion. In many ways for many of the band's fans, Cowboy Mouth is a religion. As anyone who has seen a Cowboy Mouth concert can attest, there is a lot of southern preacher in LeBlanc's stage banter. Cake Magazine once described a Cowboy Mouth performance thusly, ..."on a bad night they'll tear the roof off the joint and on a good night, they'll save your soul."

Slightly (but not entirely) more subdued on its studio recordings, Cowboy Mouth's albums feature finely crafted songs such as "Jenny Says," "Light It On Fire," "Love Of My Life," "Voodoo Shoppe," "Joe Strummer," "Everybody Loves Jill," "Easy," "Disconnected," "Home" and "How Do You Tell Someone." Cowboy Mouth's albums, which include Are Your With Me? (MCA, 1996), Mercyland (MCA, 1998), Easy (Altantic Records/Blackbird Recordings, 2000), Uh-Oh (33rd Street Records, 2003) and Voodoo Shoppe (Eleven Thirty Records, 2006) and have received critical acclaim and have garnered the band a loyal following.

Two-and-a-half decades into its career, Cowboy Mouth continues to deliver the goods. With Go!, the New Orleans-based band's 10th album, LeBlanc along with bassist Casandra Faulconer, guitarist Matt Jones, and co-founding guitarist John Thomas Griffith lay down a musical gumbo of styles (electric blues, modern rock, rockabilly, pop, punk and rock 'n' roll with a touch of funk) that could have only have been incubated in the Crescent City.

Featuring eleven new songs, the CD is a ferocious high-octane collection that will revive a tired soul. Highlights include: the title track with its staccato beat and LeBlanc's breakneck paced vocals, the CD's single "Do You Wanna Do It Right Now" (a sing-a-long tune whose lyrics leave little to the imagination), the rocking "My Little Secret," the heartfelt "Where's the Rain," "Mardi Gras By Moonlight" (which can best be described as a heavily syncopated tango), "How Would You Feel" and "Dare."

Go! is a fun collection of rootsy, upbeat, catchy and energetic tunes. It's an exciting album that is made to be played loud.