It's Time

The Los Angeles-based Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys play roots music that calls to mind the days when country and western and rock & roll were but two sides of the same coin. They're unabashedly retro, right down to their vintage clothes and period instruments. They even recorded It's Time! on vintage equipment at Joey's Place, the former home of Hollywood's famed Electro Vox studio, where folks like the Maddox Brothers and Rose and Tex Ritter once laid down tracks. None of that would mean a thing, of course, if the music wasn't any good--and it is. Instrumentally, the Fly-Rite Boys are tight as a drum, but the big weapon remains Sandy's sweet croon of a voice, which evokes Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Johnny Burnette, Faron Young, and even Elvis, among others. He uses it to great effect throughout this delightful album, as on the bouncy "Chalk It Up to the Blues," the Cajun-flavored "Bayou Blue," the surf-tinged "Catalina," and the twangy "(You Mean) Too Much to Me." --David Hill