Cruising In The Left Lane

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Hard-rocking band pulls no punches

Before I did any research on Left Lane Cruiser, I listened to their latest album, Shake and Bake. Because of this order of operations, when I finally did get to the band’s details, my first thought was, “No way.”

The band that recorded (analog, mind you) this smoking wall-of-sound blues rock album is made up of precisely two people. Two. People. Freddy J IV on vocals, guitar, and bass, and Pete Dio on drums and all other percussion are all there is to Left Lane Cruiser, but I defy you to detect this through a pair of headphones alone.

Their band isn’t bigger because it doesn’t need to be. The two hard living road dogs bring enough intensity to their performance to raise the roof of any roadside pub or juke joint.

The album wastes no time getting down business with “Two Dollar Elvis”, a ripping tune you can dance to, if you have the stamina for it. The bright, ringing “pop” of the snare suggests the drumhead, like the song, is under considerably more tension than any run of the mill act.

On the lead parts, Freddy wields a guitar slide like a chainsaw, a powerful tool that could hurt you if you misuse it. On top of it all are the vocals, gravelly and growling, as though Tom Waits has been giving elocution lessons.

Press kits are press kits, and you take what you read with a grain of salt. That’s just the nature of it. When their press kit specifically states that these guys aren’t putting on a mask to play music, that they genuinely, authentically live the hard-driving life their music suggests, you can take that to the bank.

The vocals are not an affectation. The band’s style, their passion, their hard-as-nails execution: these aren’t things you can fake. They are exactly what they say they are, and it shows. That’s rarer than you might expect.

“Shake and Bake”, in part a treatise on the therapeutic applications of herbal remedies, is jam-packed with Billy Gibson style riffs, the kind that made him a legendary guitar player, not the kind that get radio play.

“Breaking You Down” is the first song on the album that doesn’t come at you like a freight train, threatening to mow you down if you stand in the way. It isn’t exactly poppy, but I’d wager it’s as close as the band ever comes to anything resembling pop music.

Somehow “friendlier” and a tad more relaxed in the same way that a parking lot carnival roller coaster is more relaxed than, say, falling off a cliff, it’s a great tune and well-placed in the track listings as a way to break up the raw energy of everything that precedes it.

If “Breaking You Down” is a shift from high gear to cruising speed, “Smooth Commander” is downright classic, pickin’ on the porch music (at least until the Wurlitzer kicks in, though you could have a Wurlitzer on your porch I suppose).

Aside from being an all-around enjoyable tune, it is a nice display of range. The rawness and high energy of the earlier tracks are counterpointed by this laid back tune.

The second half of the album delves deeper in to the dynamics of the duo, at times reverting to that in-your-face power, at other times displaying if not a tender side, at least a more contemplative side, culminating in the final track, “Detroit House Party”, which is just pure, unadulterated rock and roll fun.

Make no mistake, given that there are only two artists here who still manage to rival any larger lineup you’d care to name, if it were a one-note album, it would still be impressive.

That they are able to parlay their skill in to a full album of blues rock that runs the expressive gamut is proof positive that Left Lane Cruiser is a powerhouse band capable of putting any three, four or five-piece act to shame.

The album is Shake and Bake. It’s available now and is a must have for any lover of blues rock, and an education for everyone else.