Ranking The 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards – Rockabilly Male Nominees

Review by Bill Tokash

This is the second of 12 installments where I’ll highlight nominees in each category of Dale Watson’s 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards. I started out with the Honky-tonk Females and now I’ll tackle the Rockabilly Males. Vote here using the free Ameripolitan Ballot Buster app until Jan. 8, 2017 (Last day of voting!) and check out this year’s batch of nominees right away! Here are Spotify and SoundCloud playlists with songs by this year’s Rockabilly Male nominees thumbnailed below.

Norton Record’s Bloodshot Bill, who hails from Montreal, Canada, kicks a raging mix of rockabilly with heavy doses of garage and trash blues. Think Hasil Adkins mixed with some Rev. Horton Heat and a wee bit of Scott H. Biram. His new Norton release is Garage Boy. Rockin’!

 

 

Sleazy Records recording artist Babe Miller is the son of a son of an auto worker from Detroit, a city with an incredibly rich, twangy musical history (just ask @WhiteyMorgan). Babe packs a traditional wallop musically and visually with the pure rockabilly twang coupled with a killer buzz cut hair do and skinny-tie suits.  

 

 

Marcel Riesco appears to have been cloned from residual Roy Orbison DNA recovered from the rock ‘n roll primordial ooze at Sam Phillip’s Sun Studios. That’s a very good thing in my book. Marcel’s debut album on Raucous Records is a stone-cold rockabilly gem, with Fickle Heart sounding like it came straight off the legendary Blue Velvet soundtrack.

 

Oklahoma native Adam Lopez, a veteran of the Tulsa scene, spins a rootsy, straightaway mix of rockabilly, honky-tonk and rock backed by his Rhythm Review. His new album Heartaches, Time Takes is on Amador 44 Records.

 

 

Lance Lipinsky is a former child prodigy from Texas who made his name playing Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet in Chicago. He also does shows as the Killer for the Legends in Concert series in Vegas, a review clearly inspired by Pierce Patchett’s Fleur-de-Lis business venture in L.A. Confidential.

 

It was a challenge to rank these boys, so give them all listen and get online to cast your votes today!