Artist:     Cousin Harley

Album:     Let’s Go!

Label:     Little Pig

Release Date:     11.26.2020

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Canadian band Cousin Harley and its frontman, guitarist/vocalist Paul Pigat, are no strangers to Elmore Magazine‘s pages, dating back to Boxcar Campfire in 2011 (the print days), and as recently as 2018’s Blue Smoke (from Iain Patience). This writer covered a Canadian collective with Pigat, Blue Moon Marquee, in July of 2019. All told, Let’s Go! is Cousin Harley’s seventh release, and it’s fair to say this latest outing is a mashup of Johnny Cash in rockabilly mode, the bluesy side of the Blasters, and the infectious rockabilly of the Stray Cats. In other words, this is the hard-rocking side of the immensely talented, versatile Paul Pigat. In the liner notes he describes the sound as “a raunchy, low brow fusion of Hillbilly, Blues and Country music with a little touch of Punky exuberance.” The other trio members are Keith Picot (double bass) and Jesse Cahill (drums).

One listen to this one will have you believing that they are the standard for a punky rockabilly unit, but they are also highly versatile. The aforementioned 2011 release, for example, reads more like country blues. Yet this one, born out of the stay-at-home-world of the pandemic, is designed to be let loose and have fun (hence the title’s exclamation point). The album was recorded at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver, Canada, in the early spring of 2020. There’s nothing tentative about Cousin Harley’s pedal to the metal approach to this stripped-down form of rock and roll. As Pigat notes, “Cousin Harley’s been my main project for 12 or 13 years now, and people think it’s easy to play rockabilly, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Everyone has to be on board from the first note or it just doesn’t work.”

They kick off with hard-hitting rockabilly and rapid-fire guitar from the get-go with “Right Back With The Blues.” The title track is another relentless rockabilly with some dark western and even surf overtones. “The Ballad Of El Swartho” is a loud, power chord-laden instrumental. “Rained Like Hell” is a standout track, featuring harmony vocals from engineer Marc L’Esperance and conjuring up Cash’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky” as if performed by The Ventures on speed.
The tempo finally eases a bit with the shuffle “She’s My Baby” but Pigat’s guitar playing remains highly fueled. “Who’s That Lyin’ is a revved-up takeoff on “John the Revelator” while “Gone, Gone, Gone” shows shades of why Pigat is highly regarded as a blues guitarist as well. The closer, “Merle the Gypsy” is a clinic in lightning-fast picking, a nod to Merle Travis, who was the inspiration behind 2018’s Blue Smoke. Strap yourself in, buckle up, and let Cousin Harley take you on an exhilarating ride.

—Jim Hynes