South Australian Blues Society October 2003 ( Australia)

Radiotones– Bound to Ride

How to introduce this CD? Well it's blues, it's Scottish, it's alternative and its bloody good!

On my first listening of this it was POW! I was immediately enthralled. There is an unusual and innovative mix here!

Take your Mississippi Delta Blues, transport it to Scotland, graft it onto the musical milieu of these generation x and y misfits and you've got Radiotones.

Familiar rolling and tumbling Elmore James rhythms merge with Pogue-ish reels. Sleepy blues harp and steel guitar passages move into heart racing drum and fife band type cadences.

I tell you, the frenetic kettle drum playing on some tracks had me marching double-time to Gettysburg via the Scottish lowlands. Take Shane MacGowan and put him on a staple diet of medium to course sand paper (which is probably the one thing that he hasn't tried), add a touch of Tom Waits and you have got the vocalizing style of Radiotones' Dave Arcari.

Add Jim Harcus on harp, Adrian Paterson on bass and Don MacKinnon on drums, deck them all out in black (no kilts here!), don them in shades, adorn them with tats, get them to avoid the mainstream and unleash them on an unsuspecting public and what have you got? RADIOTONES! Get to them before Womadelaide does.

David Stoeckel