These past few years have been challenging for Brian Setzer. Last year, the guitarist and singer-songwriter revealed that he was battling a debilitating autoimmune disease that severely impacted his hands, and thus, his playing.

Now, Setzer has shared a health update on where things stand today.

“The best way I can describe it is, your nerves are like wires, and wires have sheathing on them,” Setzer tells Guitar Player. “Well, that’s coating has kind of eroded, so the wires malfunction. Basically, they lock up my hands and feet. I can’t move them. I can’t button my pants, let alone play guitar.

“It’s frustrating when you sit down and your hands do nothing. You really can’t take it for granted. Playing guitar is certainly on top, but so is holding a toothbrush, y’know?”

The guitarist sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota – a period which he describes as inherently transformative.

“I’m lying in there, and some guy next to me has got cancer,” he observes. After a year of treatment, he slowly but surely started his road to recovery.

“I was able to hold a guitar pick. That came first. It was, ‘All right, I’m more than halfway there.’ And then when I was able to fingerpick, when my fingers came back, then I had the whole package.”

However, Setzer's dream of returning to the stage was further delayed due to his unintended dependence on the over-the-counter herbal wellness tonic Kraton, which is a controlled substance in several states.

“It started innocently enough,” he relates. “They advertise it as a safe tonic to give you energy, and it’s not. So that just aggravated the whole thing. I just stopped everything and went away and cleaned out and came back fresh and clean.

“I had to go get everything out of my system, really. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about; if anyone has a problem, you go, and they take care of you. And thank God you can come back.”

And while there's no guarantee that the autoimmune disease won't impede his playing in the future, for now, Setzer is grateful that he can, once again, wield his beloved Gretsch G6120s. In fact, he has a full touring schedule ahead of him with the Stray Cats, kicking off in Las Vegas on July 24.

“What’s in the pipeline for me now is to play, that’s all. I’m just glad I can play, and so many places are waiting for us, and people want to see us, which I don’t take for granted,” he concludes.

In a recent Guitar World interview, Setzer revealed how he’s kept his writing skills sharp, and discussed the records that define his career.

As a low-key player’s player, Jo Burt has provided bass for The Troggs, Freddie Mercury, Brian Setzer and Black Sabbath – but he doesn’t single out his short touring stint with Tony Iommi’s band as a career highlight.

“Playing at Wembley Stadium with my own band, Sector 27, would be one,” he tells Bass Player. “And possibly opening for The Police at Madison Square Garden might be another.” When it comes to recording, he adds, “working with Freddie is a high point.”

He did learn an important lesson from Sabbath, though – the importance of retaining freedom. “I have my own band, which has been up and running for a few years. It’s allowed me to get back to writing, as in the early years with Sector 27.”

He adds: “Being in control has been of huge importance in my life. In the Black Sabbath time I had none. I’m also happy to be free of the industry, which I now realize is and always has been corrupt. No regrets!”

When you played with The Troggs, how did you nail their classic garage rock tone?

“The Troggs were my first pro band. In 1978, when we played New York City, the Ramones and the New York Dolls were in the audience along with Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Deborah Harry and Andy Warhol. Reg Presley was treated like the godfather of punk, and the band had taken on the mantle.

“I’d recently bought a silver Music Man StingRay bass. It had a great maple neck which felt like a Fender. I was lucky to have an Ampeg SVT supplied by the club, which I set to my usual tone – slight mid-cut with slight bass and treble boost.

“What I hadn’t reckoned on was the EQ on the Music Man bass, which was actually more clanky than I expected. If you listen to The Troggs Live at Max’s, the bass sound is not really my thing – but boy, does it push Ronnie Bond and the band along!

“I didn’t keep the Music Man; I couldn’t get on with all that EQ and choices. I’m back to a fretted Precision as a companion to my lovely ‘battered blonde’ fretless.”

You played bass on Freddie Mercury’s Mr. Bad Guy album. What led to that?

“Sector 27 was being looked after by Elton John’s manager, John Reid, and we did extensive touring as the opening act for Elton. John had also managed Queen, and the contact with Freddie remained.

“I had also worked with Roger Taylor and Rick Parfitt on a single for Jimmy Nail, so I was already in the family of musicians around Freddie. On one of those clubbing nights out that used to happen, Freddie asked me to come to Munich.”

Did you err toward John Deacon’s bass style?

“Freddie told me to be free-thinking and not to worry about trying to be John. My style was similar anyway – ‘less is more’ has always been a mantra. I guess it was old-fashioned in the days when bass guitars were getting attention from manufacturers who were starting to offer fancy, ever more sophisticated basses.”

What were Freddie’s expectations of you as a bassist?

“On so many recording sessions for major artists, those artists are never actually there. If they are, they tend to instruct from the control room via microphone. But Freddie was a remarkable musician and totally on it in the studio.

“In the control room, or even sitting in the recording room with me, he was throwing ideas back and forth, encouraging me to experiment. He was careful to keep me at ease while being this whirlwind of ideas. Like Michael Jackson, he was able to sing the parts he wanted played.

“Freddie liked to work fast. He used to say, ‘If it’s not brilliant by the third take, move on – maybe come back tomorrow.’ On his his vocal takes that rule was never needed. Once he was prepared, his tracks were all first takes.”

You played fretless on Mr. Bad Guy. What led to that?

“Freddie had specifically asked. He really wanted to get away from all things Queen, although he was has happy enough when Brian and Roger dropped by and even made suggestions.

“Aside from some light compression applied from the control desk, it was just me and my lovely battered fretless bass plugged in direct.”

How did you hook up with Jason Bonham in Virginia Wolf?

“I got a call one day from Roger, saying he was producing this great band but they needed beefing up. He had secured Jason to play drums, and wanted me on bass. I did kind of jump at the idea! That afternoon Jason and I were certainly beefing up those tracks at Pete Townshend’s studio.”

Was the chemistry between you and Jason immediate?

“I felt a certain responsibility for this young man bouncing around like a scared bunny, following desperately in his late father’s footsteps. Eventually, being on tour in the US with him was definitely a challenge, but a nice one.

“Jason and I locked in as a rhythm section immediately. He played and sounded like his dad. After listening to Led Zeppelin II over and over at school, I was allowed to use the influence from those tracks. It was probably the first time that I acknowledged John Paul Jones’ influence. Later on, even Robert Plant said I played like him!

“After two years, Virginia Wolf crashed and burned in the flame of inexperience and internal pettiness. It was a shame – Atlantic Records had backed the band a few quid for their attempt at domination in the USA.”

What led to you getting the call for Black Sabbath’s Eternal Idol tour?

“Phil Banfield had been Virginia Wolf’s manager. He managed Ian Gillan and he was part of a bigger set-up which included Jeff Beck and Black Sabbath. When he heard Sabbath needed a last-minute replacement for their European Eternal Idol tour, he called me.”

Was there an audition?

“There was no time for an audition! I just arrived at production rehearsals, with the huge stage, sound system and lights already in place. The sound desk was set up at a distance in the aircraft-style hangar. The only rehearsal I had was a couple of days, listening to a cassette of the show and a copy of the album.”

Were you expected to play a rig and in a style similar to Geezer Butler’s?

“The rig set was three Ampeg SVT amplifiers, each with an 8x12 cabinet. As it happens I had my own SVT set up – my amp of choice – so I was familiar with them, except there were three!

“Even so, the sound wasn’t right, and after a few run-throughs, Tony said the same thing. I’d had the first amp taken away because it was distorting like crazy; the pre-amp valves had been tweaked into overdrive. Then the penny dropped.

“We put that amp back in line and the distorted sound gave my bass loads of sustain, which made Tony smile. It took some getting used to – the bass was like an animal in my hands. It was difficult to stop it resonating. My trouser legs were flapping with the sound pressure from the three big cabs!

“As a 20-something, I was more Led Zep than Sabbath. I knew the more well-known Sabbath songs, but I did struggle with identifying one or two of the titles. I was certainly not able to play like Geezer when he would virtually play a bass solo over the instrumental parts; there just wasn’t the time to learn them accurately.

“I always felt I was playing an approximation when the band launched into some of those riffs in faster time changes.”

Can you pinpoint how your style specifically differed from Geezer’s?

“My style was more melodic. But you have to remember that I followed a long list of bass players, and it was really only the earlier songs that had his style. Bob Daisley played on the Eternal Idol album.

“War Pigs was a classic which I enjoyed playing, although the solo sections were always a challenge. Glory Ride was an easy rocker. I really liked the tracks we played from the Eternal Idol album as well as the classics. It feels like a privilege to have played Iron Man.”

Was it a challenge being on the road with Sabbath during those lean ’80s years?

“Travelling was absolutely fine. Me and drummer Terry Chimes had met when he was with The Clash and I was with Tom Robinson. Tony Martin was also a newbie, so I guess there was some nervous energy on the tour bus.

“Jeff Nicholls was a funny guy and very friendly. After years of playing offstage, he had no ego; he was a very present friend to me while travelling. Tony had that classic Brummie sense of humor, which matched with Jeff, so all in all it was pretty comfortable – with four-star hotels included.

“It only felt lean when tour manager Richard Cole dragged me out of the bus, still in my sleeping bag, and told me, ‘Hurry up! We’re all going home.’”

Did he give an explanation?

“I’m not sure why the tour ended so abruptly. All the gear was impounded by the sound and light company, who hadn’t been paid. I never got a bunch of my gear returned, although I did eventually get my fretless back. People don’t get sacked from Sabbath; they just don’t get spoken to again!”

You’ve also worked with Brian Setzer.

“I knew him through his time in England with the Stray Cats, when we often hung out. I met him again in the Rainbow in LA and his first comment was, ‘My bass player’s got an attitude. Do you want the gig?’

“I had a Precision-style Peavey bass stored at a friend’s house. I hadn’t played it very much, but it meant I was able to get straight to rehearsal the next day. Even that bass felt a little over-spec for the hillbilly rock ’n’ roll we playing. I felt I should have had a semi, like an old Epiphone Rivoli bass.

“Brian was a great guy and a truly talented guitar player. He also introduced me to the best Mexican restaurant in Hollywood, which I still visit when I can!”

What are you up to now?

“The Jo Burt Experience have released four albums – the most recent one is Anglicana. We’ve done four tours of British Columbia and Calgary. France and Belgium have also been happy hunting grounds. It’s all done as a cottage industry.

“Most recently, I released a superb live album entitled Jo Burt The Live Experience in limited-edition vinyl. It’s due to be cut at Abbey Road in for a spring 2026 release.”

• Anglicana is out now.

The Stray Cats have cancelled their fall American tour due to singer/guitarist Brian Setzer's “serious illness,” the band announced on social media today.

“I’m heartbroken to share, due to serious illness, I am unable to perform and very regrettably have to cancel our Stray Cats tour,” Setzer wrote in a statement shared on both the band's and his own Instagram pages.

“I know this affects so many people and I am devastated to have to deliver this news. I’ve been trying everything I can to go on and do these shows, but it is just not possible.

“I’ve been looking forward so much to being on stage with my band mates again and playing for all of our amazing fans, and I’m gutted.”

Just days ago, the beloved rockabilly trio were forced to cancel the opening show of their tour – scheduled for Saturday, October 25, in Mount Pleasant, Michigan – due to Setzer's illness.

In February 2025, the Gretsch-wielding guitar icon revealed that he had contracted an autoimmune disease that had robbed him of the ability to play guitar.

“I cannot play guitar,” he wrote in a social media post. “There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play.”

The following month, Setzer issued a positive update to fans, saying that he was “getting better day by day.”

The Stray Cats recently released two new tracks – Stampede and a cover of Eddie Cochran’s Teenage Heaven. The recordings were the band's first in six years.

Frank Hannon is known for his ’80s rock stylings with Tesla, but he’s not leaning into those sounds on Reflections, his new instrumental album, which has more of a Western tinge to it. “I started taking my guitar playing to another level of simplicity – slowing down and trying to express myself,” he explains.

He was influenced by a series of personal losses, including that of his father-in-law, Dickey Betts. “I was feeling that,” he says. “and also, a few friends had passed away, along with the pain my wife and I were going through.”

That’s when he recalled what Betts had taught him. “He obsessively and intently put 100 percent into everything he did. One of his quotes to me was: ‘Keep on swinging.’”

That matched one of Hannon’s own: “Play guitar like you’ll never play again.” He reflects: “If you leave the planet before you expected, leave something behind that you feel genuinely represents your heart.”

Reflections showcases a different style than you’re known for.

“Western-sounding guitar, country influences and simple chord changes have always been a part of my input to Tesla, as seen in songs like What You Give. But since this is an instrumental album, I was tapping into the guitar being a lead voice.”

How did the loss of Dickey Betts, impact your process?

“Coming from the West Coast in the ’80s, I wasn’t really influenced by Dickey until I met him 24 years ago, and we became family. His influence really wasn’t through the guitar – it was as a person, a survivor, and his stories.

“When we went golfing, we’d be laughing in the truck, talking about scenarios he’d gone through and survived, the integrity that he put into his music, and how he made every note count in his playing.

“Now that I’ve studied it more – even compared to Duane Allman, who always said he was the famous guitar player – Dickey was the great one. Even if he played a lot of notes, you could hear every single one. They all had a purpose.”

How did you apply that to Reflections?

“I stopped noodling the intention into my notes. With instrumental music, I’ve learned to slow down and play with the intent of expressing myself.”

What’s the story behind the Gretsch on the cover?

“It’s a Hot Rod model, and it’s blue or purple, depending on the light. The body is a little smaller than the Falcon, and it resonates really cool. It actually belonged to Brian Setzer, who donated it to the Hard Rock Cafe then one of my good friends, Don, who passed away, had it.

“I was telling him how much I love Brian Setzer’s playing. Don said, ‘Let me give you this guitar, rather than having it hang on the wall at the Hard Rock.’ It’s one of my favorite guitars – it has a really distinctive tone.”

You also used one of Dickey’s Gibson SGs.

“I was going to a jam at a bar in Florida and I grabbed the SG that was sitting in the living room. Dickey was on the couch and I said, ‘Do you mind if I borrow this guitar?’

“Dickey was funny, man – he had such a serious look. I thought he wanted to kick my ass! He could look at you like he was pissed, then in a split-second smile and make you feel like a million bucks!

“He was looking at the SG then looking at me for a couple of minutes straight. Then he goes, ‘No.’ I go, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘That’s not the good one. Go in the bedroom and grab the good one!’

“I went into the bedroom, grabbed the other one and he goes, ‘Yeah, take that one. But cherish it – don’t let nothing happen to it because it’s a great one.’”

What makes that SG so great?

“It was his Dickey Betts From One Brother to Another prototype; number one, the first prototype Gibson made. It weighs like six pounds. It’s light as a feather, the neck is super-slim, and it stays in tune really great. It’s got nylon saddles on the bridge so it has a warmer tone.

“So I used it at that jam. Fast forward a couple of years, and I was going on the road with Devon Allman and Duane Betts for the Allman Family Reunion Revival, and I borrowed the same SG for that.

“Dickey came to one of the shows – his 80th birthday in Sarasota, Florida. He whispers, ‘Hey, is that the guitar I loaned you?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He goes, ‘Good,’ and he gave me the thumbs up, and a hug. He said, ‘You can use it for as long as you want.’ So I’m still borrowing it. It means a lot to me and to my heart.”

Is there a song from Reflections that best represents what you wanted to communicate?

“There’s two. One is called Our Father’s Love. The main theme has a spiritual vibe that I was feeling when my wife and I were looking up at the stars, thinking about our pain and grief. She was really close to her dad. The melody is about being grateful for being alive.

“This Is Goodbye is the last song on the record – it's probably going to be the single. The melody is very contemplative and simple, where you take a simple chord, and then pick the notes in between, like I did on What You Give by Tesla. People said This Is Goodbye could be in a soundtrack for a Western movie.”

What’s next for you?

Tesla is still very busy, and then there’s my solo shows. I want to keep using guitar as my singing voice. I’ve tried to sing; playing guitar is a lot more fun!”

• Reflections is on sale now.

Rockabilly electric guitar great Brian Setzer is selling off a raft of pre-loved vintage guitars on his official Reverb store, alongside other gear picks and memorabilia.

The Stray Cats guitarist turned the rockabilly game on its head with his Gretsch-toting playing style, which gleefully threw jazz, swing, and rock 'n' roll into the mix with unique results.

A few years back, Setzer sold a selection of his guitars, amps and cabs through Reverb, and now his digital store is back in business with an updated crop of vintage gems.

He’s holding on to his main hollow-body Gretsch guitars, but there are some rare vintage gems to be found. The store is headlined by a 1959 D'Angelico New Yorker, although he jokes that “you’ve got to be from New York to play this guitar.”

While its hard case has taken an understandable beating, the guitar is in impressively pristine shape, save for some scratches on its back and what appears to be a small scratch or crack on its headstock. It features split block inlays and a sunburst finish. Another ’59 New Yorker is currently for sale on Reverb for $75,000, so don’t expect this to come any cheaper.

Elsewhere, there’s a 1964 Gibson Firebird in its original Cardinal Red finish, as well as an ES-175 from 1961.

Moving on, a Hot Rod Flag Black brandished with Power Tron pickups and custom pinstriping painted by Tommy Otis, as played on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, is sure to draw attention. There are also three Gretsch acoustic guitars up for grabs: a G Brand Gretsch Rancher used on a variety of tours, and two Black Rancher builds. One was played on his Rockabilly Riot Summer Tour in 2019, the other features a falcon headstock.

A Hiwatt Custom Tape Echo, used when he played on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, rounds out the gear.

“And I’m selling this, why?” Setzer questions himself in the promotional video. For those who aren't interested in a guitar, a collection of stage-worn clothing will also be listed when the store launches on September 24.

Head to Reverb for more.

Back in March, Setzer said he is “getting better day by day” as he issued an update on his “excellent progress” towards full health. His struggles with autoimmune disease, which started with hand cramps while on tour last year, have been well-documented.

Brian Setzer has issued an update on his health after the influential rockabilly icon announced an autoimmune disease had left him unable to play the guitar.

In February, the Stray Cats Gretsch guitar loyalist posted a statement to social media, in which he confirmed he’d been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after first noticing the effects of his condition while on tour.

After Setzer felt his hands cramping up as the trip reached its end, the guitarist was told he had the autoimmune condition, which ultimately rendered him unable to play the guitar. “There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play,” he wrote at the time.

In a new update, Setzer has offered a positive update on his recovery, revealing that the progress he is making is “excellent” – and that he dreams of returning to the stage soon.

“I just want to let you all know that I’m getting better day by day,” Setzer says. “The progress I’m making is excellent! My dream is to visit Japan, the States, and Europe with Stray Cats, and of course, one of my biggest thrills would be bringing back the BSO Christmas show tradition.

“Thank you all for your love and support – it truly means the world to me. I was deeply touched. I love you guys, and only we can truly understand what this sound means to us!”

Autoimmune diseases occur when a person’s immune system attacks healthy cells in the body. It can affect virtually every part of the body, and at the time of writing, there is no cure, but a range of treatments – from targeted therapies to anti-inflammatory drugs – are available.

No timeframe has been put on Setzer’s recovery, but from the sounds of things, it might not be too long before we see the rockabilly king behind the wheel of his beloved Gretsch guitar once more.

Speaking to Guitar World last year, Setzer discussed his life-long love affair with hollowbody Gretsch instruments, and cited the physical characteristics of such six-strings as the reason for his affections.

“The whole thing shakes,” he said at the time. “You feel it. It’s the best thing in the world, for me.”

Tom “TV” Jones has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments in the guitar world. He built the TV Jones company around his innovative technology, revived and modernized the classic Filter’Tron electric guitar pickup, and was instrumental in the Gretsch brand’s revival.

Working with acclaimed artists included Brian Setzer and Billy Gibbons, Jones has reshaped rockabilly, country, rock music and more. But the TV Jones story isn’t only about pickup design – it’s about a dedication and obsessive mission to craft a unique guitar sound.

Jones spent his formative years pulling electric guitars apart to learn about their inner workings. By the 1980s, he was playing in bands, and, like all tone chasers, he was unhappy with his pickups.

“In the late ’80s I was taking guitars apart, playing since I was 14. I decided to make a guitar and still have it.

“In the late ’80s, I decided to make a guitar – and I still have it,” Jones says. “Then in the early ’90s I worked in the guitar repair department at The World of Strings, a violin shop in Long Beach, CA, where I learned how to refine my craft.”

He launched the TV Jones company in 1993. “I started out as a guitar maker, then moved to pickups,” he recalls. “I started designing and manufacturing pickups that capture the tonal essence of vintage models that appeal to modern guitarists.”

He found inspiration in the Filter’Tron pickups found in vintage Gretsch guitars – a design known for clarity, warmth and bite. “It blooms with saturation as you dig in,” he explains.

“Brian Setzer’s guitar tech, Rich Modica, would bring his guitars into The World of Strings for work. I did fret jobs, reshaped necks, lacquer refinishes, and built custom guitars for Brian. He’s been my main client going on 32 years. His vintage ’59 Gretsch 6120 inspired me to learn how to build pickups.”

The big break came when Setzer, who wanted to augment his sound with increased reliability for recording and touring, adopted Jones’ version of the Filter’Tron. The pickup builder was catapulted into the guitar world’s consciousness, and earned him the trust of Fred Gretsch.

The result was Jones’ pickups being installed in the Gretsch Setzer Hot Rod guitar models, and a partnership with Gretsch that’s still going strong.

“We wanted to make it possible for musicians to try them in any type of guitar, so we devised all kinds of mounting options,” Jones says. “They were mentioned on the Gretsch Pages discussion forum, and production exploded after that.”

The timing was perfect – Gretsch was going through a revival due to a renewed interest in vintage-style guitars popularized by Setzer, Elliott Easton, Steven Stills and Bo Diddley. With TV Jones pickups aboard the Vintage Select Edition series among others, instruments delivered the vintage tones of past models with modern appeal.

In 1999, Fred Gretsch hired Jones as a consultant and go-between with artists to help design their signature guitars. The term “That great Gretsch sound” soon became synonymous with the tone of TV Jones pickups. In 2001, Jones relocated to a facility in downtown Poulsbo, Washington, where the company remains.

Then another big name appeared on the scene.

“I got a call from a gentleman who sounded like he was from Texas,” Jones says. “I asked, ‘Is this who I think it is?’ He said, ‘Yes!’ It was Billy Gibbons.”

The ZZ Top leader was interested in a pickup that sounded like a humbucker, but fit in a Filter’Tron housing for the Gretsch Billy-Bo guitar. By adding more magnet wire to the standard Power’Tron, the Power’Tron Plus was born.

TV Jones’ success was far from easy to achieve in a market saturated by heavyweights including Gibson, Fender, Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio.

The pickup builder relied on direct connections to musicians and word-of-mouth advertising to spread the word. His company triumphed out of respect in the guitar community, and players who tried TV Jones pickups became evangelists.

One of the trademarks in Jones’ approach is his commitment to personalization. While most manufacturers were offering standardized pickups, he focused on the necessity of tailoring tone to individual players, offering customers one-to-one advice.

From the vintage twang and growl of the TV Classic to the golden-age PAF vibe of the Power’Tron, the TV Jones range expanded over time – but the company has never lost its boutique ethos. Its tooling is all self-manufactured, and every pickup is crafted with the same care and precision of Jones’ early experiments.

Yet despite the accolades, Jones remains an underdog in the truest sense: a tone craftsman whose work reverberates louder than the name. His achievements are a reminder that persistence and passion will triumph.

While mass production can overtake artistry, Jones’ dedication to authenticity and quality sets him apart. He didn’t just build a brand – he forged a legacy built on the constant pursuit of tone. When players experience the magic of a TV Jones pickup it proves that, sometimes, underdogs can redefine the game.

And the reimagining of the Filter’Tron was the catalyst. “It gives you more dynamic control,” Jones says.

“I heard that when I played Setzer’s personal guitars. The magnets and pole screws are larger in the Filter’Tron; the bobbins are closer together and have less magnet wire. That translates to clarity and more dynamics.”

“I thought, ‘I have to recreate this!’”

• Head to TV Jones for more information.

Rockabilly electric guitar legend Brian Setzer has announced he has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and is currently unable to play guitar.

The Stray Cats guitarist first noticed the effects of his condition late last year while on the road with the band. As the trip reached its end, he says, “my hands were cramping up.”

“I’ve since discovered that I have an autoimmune disease,” Setzer writes on social media. “I cannot play guitar. There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play.”

Autoimmune diseases are where a person’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in their body. It can affect virtually every part of the body, but in Setzer’s case, his hands are feeling the brunt of the symptoms. Luckily, there seems to be a glint of hope.

“I have seen some progress in that I can hold a pen and tie my shoes,” he continues. “I know this sounds ridiculous, but I was at a point where I couldn’t even do that. I know I will beat this, it will just take some time.”

As things stand, there is no cure for autoimmune diseases but a range of treatments – from anti-inflammatory drugs to targeted therapies – can curtail the more intense symptoms and, importantly here, enable Setzer to pick up a guitar once more.

Inspired by the likes of Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins, Setzer and his rockabilly guitar style initially found success with the Stray Cats, who first formed in the late 1970s.

Finding a unique and infectious blend of jazz, swing, and rock ‘n’ roll, Setzer built a sizable reputation for the music he created with big-body Gretch guitars. He has been described as “a guitar god” by GW scribe Andy G Jones, who delivered an in-depth lesson into his iconic playing style.

Speaking of his lifelong love of hollowbody Gretsch guitars to Guitar World last year, Setzer said, “The whole thing shakes. You feel it. It’s the best thing in the world, for me.”

Guitar World wishes Setzer a smooth and speedy recovery.

Brian Setzer revitalised the rockabilly scene with his band The Stray Cats in the early 1980s, during the time he was living in the UK. After the initial success of the band and his various solo projects, Setzer had a fantastic second wind with his Brian Setzer Orchestra which adds jazz and swing influences to the rockabilly core.

A jazz enthusiast from an early age, Setzer blends Charlie Christian-tinged inflections into his lines and shows a sophisticated way of navigating the chord changes. This approach is not that surprising for a rockabilly player, but the more complex music that his band plays really brings this aspect of Brian’s playing to the fore.

In the big band setting, Setzer is very involved in the arranging process and his obvious grasp of the harmony is again displayed in some lovely chord melody moments. Setzer is one of those players that uses a particular kind of guitar and its sound is difficult to emulate on another type of instrument. His Gretsches generally have Bigsby vibrato arms – a big part of his sound.

Musically he often demonstrates bolder use of chromatic notes than you might expect from this style. However, some of the early rockabilly players also used lines that elegantly observed the chord changes.

These often use the ‘Bebop’ scale, an amended form of the Mixolydian mode where the major 7th degree is added between the root and the b7. It’s one surefire way to know that you’re using chromatic notes that will work on a standard dominant 7th. Brian’s approach is organic but it’s also obvious that he has seriously worked at his understanding of jazz harmony.

Another element of Setzer’s playing is the blues guitar phrasing and blues-influenced string bends. Country guitar influences are also in evidence. Travis picking is common in both straight rockabilly and traditional country guitar styles. And in his 1981 classic, Stray Cat Strut, Setzer breaks out some really ear-catching economy picking – that’s certainly what it sounds like, but if it’s turbocharged alternate picking then that’s even more impressive! 

In country, western swing and rockabilly styles it’s common for players to use hybrid picking – a combination of pick and fingers that really helps with double-stop playing, small chord fragments, and string crossing for arpeggios. It’s best to hold the pick as you normally would but grab at the strings with the other fingers. This is an approach that would have grown out of the demands of the music.

If you’re playing Travis picking accompaniment patterns (as Setzer often does) while also playing conventionally with a pick, it’s easy to bring the other picking fingers into play when needed. If you adopt this approach, aim to keep the picking hand relaxed, as it can be easy to tense up.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 4, Bass 7, Middle 4, Treble 6, Reverb 4

A clean American guitar amp sound drenched in reverb and slap-back echo is a good place to start. Treble or middle pickup will help you cut through, although for the jazzy parts, the neck pickup can be better. Just a touch of overdrive will add a bit of authentic grit to you sound. On held chords, a little waggle on the vibrato arm would be in character with Brian’s vibe.

Example 1. Minor key workout

Brian might scrape muted notes across adjacent strings before hitting the quarter (crochet) notes. Watch your timing, don’t rush, and play with attitude.

Example 2. Chromatic ‘spice’ notes

Using chromatic notes to spice up a simple minor pentatonic idea works great. This lick ends with some classic double-stop ideas. 

Example 3. Ascending repeated pattern

This a classic rockabilly move going up chromatically using a repeating pattern. Jimmy Page, a huge rock and roll fan, also used this approach with Led Zeppelin. 

Example 4. Two-string pull-offs

This one’s a little tricky as it uses pull-offs on two strings by covering them with one fretting-hand finger. It sounds best if the amp is cranked a little bit. 

Example 5. Economy picking

Try economy picking in places like bar 3, one stroke across several strings (useful for arpeggios). Note the chromaticism provides b3, 3 plus #4, b6,b7 and 7. Colourful!

Since the earliest days of the Stray Cats, and later with his namesake, Orchestra, Brian Setzer has blazed a trail of his own creation, accompanied by imagery steeped in fast cars, flashy guitars and flaming licks.

It took a certain level of fearlessness to play rockabilly in the early ’80s, let alone have worldwide success, and it took an even greater level of courage to pivot to swing and jive in the ’90s, when grunge and Britpop, propped up by MTV, reigned supreme.

“I don't know if it was fearlessness – or just me being stubborn,” Setzer says. “I'm stubborn enough to refuse to follow along with whatever is going on at the time. I've always been someone who needs to follow his own trail. Trends be damned – I can't follow them. I have to do what I want.

“Rockabilly was ignored before the Stray Cats started, so I feel proud to hold up that crown. We brought it back in a big way and did it the way we wanted. We didn't just cover songs from the ’50s; we wrote our own songs and came up with riffs that wouldn't have been thought of in the ’50s. That's my badge right there; I wear it proudly.”

Setzer’s latest release is a blazing slice of rockabilly called The Devil Always Collects, the satisfying followup to 2021’s Gotta Have the Rumble. Speaking with Guitar World, the Gretsch loyalist opened up about the new record, his creative process and how he stays inspired after all these decades.

Tell me about how The Devil Always Collects got started.

“This album started like most of mine – when I came up with a guitar riff. I came up with the riff for Rock Boys Rock. It was so simple that I was like, 'Hasn't this been done before?' I went back to make sure, and sure enough, it hadn't been done before. It always starts with the riffs, and then the song will build from there. 

“Then I'll start thinking, 'It would be cool if I shouted, "Rock boys, rock,"' which is pretty catchy. So that's how this record started, and it built up from there similarly, like, with Black Leather Jacket, as another example.”

How do you keep from being repetitive when writing riffs?

“There's no secret to it, really. I just need to pick up the guitar and play. I just need to play, even if it means stumbling around with something I’ve already done. I might be messing around with a riff I wrote 40 years ago, like Stray Cat Strut, because it's familiar. But then, suddenly, I'll come up with something new while doing that.

“I can grab my guitar right now and play you a riff you've probably never heard before, just a little boogie-woogie [Brian grabs his guitar and plays some boogie-woogie]. Can you hear that? I know it's random, but it's new. And even if there's a mistake in there, or it's super flat, I can work on it, and maybe it'll become a riff. Sometimes the mistakes are the riffs that stick.”

How often are your riffs happy accidents rather than premeditated?

“Usually, it happens all at once. When I turn the faucet on and write songs, it'll start to flow like crazy. People laugh at me; I still use old cassette recorders and write things down musically. Because being able to record it doesn't mean you can play it back, right? So having it written down is a great backup.

“That said, I have old riffs lying around; I'll pull out my old cassette recorder, put it on at night, and say, ‘Hey, there's one. I wonder if I can use that for something...’ It's kinda like having a library full of riffs.”

What's your process for solos?

“I usually go in with a rough outline of what I want to do. But I don't strictly follow it, per se. Of course, when I play the solo from Stray Cat Strut or Rock This Town, I play them as I wrote them because they've become trademarks. I won't ever change those because everyone knows them too well.

“But with other songs, and when recording new songs, a lot happens on the fly. I'll usually have some sort of roadmap where I know when notes I want to hit, but how I connect them is often improvised.”

How do you decide what gear you're going to deploy?

“Whatever sound I want to get must come out of the Fender Bassman. So if I want tremolo, I've got to get an outboard piece of gear and bring it in because I can't lose my sound. It's the same with reverb; if I want to use a little reverb, I'll have to hook it up to the amp.”

How about guitars? Is it always hollowbodies, or do you mix in others?

“Usually, if I stray too far away from hollowbody guitars, I lose my sound. But I did end up using a Gretsch Duo Jet on this album, which is different. And I know; it's still an aggressive guitar, but it's basically a solidbody. It has chambers, but it's not a traditional hollowbody guitar.

“It kinda came out of nowhere; it had been sitting around, and I grabbed it, turned it up a little louder than usual, and I was like, ‘There it is… there's the sound.’ It's almost like a Tele, sound-wise, but a little different. The pickups in the Duo Jet are single-coil, though, so there's this old Hi-Fi sound to them.”

Did using the Duo Jet inspire you to venture down new avenues?

“That's a good question. You can get more meat out of a solidbody guitar when you're up in the higher registers than with a hollowbody. That's just the way it is. And I don't do a lot of string-bending to the extent where I'm bending up a whole step, but I found that I could do more with the Duo Jet.

“Anytime I've tried to do a lot of string-bending on a hollowbody, it turns into a violin-sounding instrument. It doesn't speak; it gets thinner. But with the Duo Jet, it stays the same as it's solid.”

Buddy Guy recently sang the praises of his ’50s Bassman. Is yours of the same vintage?

“Mine is a ’63, so it's the White Tolex model. And the thing about the White Tolex Bassman amps – the ones with the big circuits – is they have a solid-state rectifier, which tightens up the sound. But the Bassman amps from the ’50s are different; they're more squishy-sounding. And then you have the other ones, which are the Black[-panel] ones, which are too brittle.

“I don't play with a lot of overdrive, so I need more of a clean sound; the '63 White Tolex sits right in the middle, and the circuitry is right for what I need.”

Is your Bassman all original, or have you needed to replace any components?

“The good thing is I've got a few of them now, so I don't rely on just one. The ideal thing to do is to keep them original, but I haven't always been able to do that. The first thing that usually happens is you blow the speakers, which happened a bunch of times to me years back when I started to become popular and play larger venues.

“And the reason I blew the speakers is I thought I needed to play louder, which I didn't. But that's what I thought back then. So I'd blow the speakers and keep putting bigger ones in, and pretty soon, you've got a Marshall. [Laughs]

“I learned over the years that louder is not always better. If you can, you want to keep the original speakers, transformers and all that good stuff without tampering with it.”

Regarding not needing to play loud, what was the moment of clarity?

“It didn't really happen for me until maybe 2019, after my ears were blown, and there was a constant ringing in my head. [Laughs] I had blown a speaker out, opened the back of the cabinet and said, ’Well, this is why I played so loud.’ I'm always testing new speakers to try and get a sound, and I'm always turning it up louder. 

“I had a revelation that it doesn't need to be that loud. It's simple, but it took me a while to realize that I only need to focus on plugging into the amp and getting a good – rather than a loud – sound.”

If you do divert from the Bassman, what's your go-to?

“I have this little Supro Thunderbolt [S6420], and I've used it on several records. They have a sweet sound and not as much gain. With the Bassman, you need a lot of volume coming out because it goes back into the hollowbody guitar so that you can play with sustain and feedback. It's amazing, but you don't get that with a solidbody. The Supro doesn't have quite that level of overhead, but they're darn close.”

How do you reconcile your love for rockabilly and swing while writing new music?

“I reconcile it in that I play it the same way on guitar. There's no difference to me. If I play a chord or solo, I hear a saxophone horn section in my mind. That's just how my ear deciphers things. So if I come up with the solo, I see it as an idea for a horn section. It's the same process. And in doing that, I play them the same way. I don't omit anything or lean in any different way.”

What's the line of demarcation between the player you are today vs. your younger years?

“I listen back to myself and how I played in the early days, and man, there was some pretty good stuff. A lot of times, I'm like, ‘Oh, wow, what did I do there?’ So I can't say I've gotten better in any way because rock ’n’ roll is about energy and what you're putting out there. Some of that stuff from the early days is pretty hard to beat.”

The way you connect the chords and phrases seems to have advanced…

“People often ask me, ‘What are you doing between the chords as you go from A to Z?’ The best I can say is, what I hear in my head with chord substitutions – and the in-between stuff – is that it's something you have to hear. I don't think that's something you can learn or that anyone tells you about. You have to hear it yourself.

“And I often explain that to people, like a lightbulb goes off. It's like, ‘Oh, why wouldn't you play the B flat diminished before the D?' To use a baseball analogy, it's like how you have to anticipate a curveball in the count before the pitcher throws his two-seam fastball.”

Still, unlocking the fretboard is difficult for people. What was the key for you?

“Oh, no, it totally is. I don't know that there's anyone who teaches guitar that doesn't speak about that – because it is hard. But what unlocks it for me is just listening to literally everything. 

“There is not one type of music that I exclusively listen to. What I listen to at any given time can range from roots music, jazz, country, swing, rock ’n’ roll, rockabilly, blues and anything else. But that's the main stuff; it's a deep well.”

When you reflect on your catalog, what do you feel your definitive album is?

“The first thing that comes to mind is the first Stray Cats record, Stray Cats, which, when it came out in Europe, was called Built for Speed. And another is a record called Dirty Boogie, which came out in '98 with my big band. I really caught lightning in a bottle with those. Those are records I still play; for whatever reason, they just sound right.”

How do you continue to stay inspired in terms of writing new music?

“That's the magic of this; that's what keeps me coming back. I still feel like I have to make new magic. I don't want to keep holding the same microphone the same way all the time. I don't stop at the amp and put it on the same volume each time, and I don't put an egg on a piece of toast the same way each morning. 

“Nothing new that I do will sound exactly the same way; it's a new piece of magic. And even if I'm happy with it, it just won't happen that same way again. It doesn't work that way – but I'm okay with that.”

• Brian Setzer's The Devil Always Collects is available now via Surfdog Records.

Rockabilly king Brian Setzer talks about his lifelong love of Gretsch guitars and how his beloved Gretsch 6120 was usurped by a ‘Frankenstein’ Duo Jet on his latest album, The Devil Always Collects.

How did you first become a Gretsch guy, and what keeps you one today? 

“Those things still bring me the most fun out of anything. Out of old motorcycles, old cars – it’s Gretsch guitars. I bought one [his 1959 orange 6120] in the late 1970s because I wanted to look like Eddie Cochran. I didn’t even know if they’d sound good.

“Back then, no-one knew who Eddie Cochran was, so I found it in the local paper for 100 bucks. It’s such a special sound. People who play solidbody guitars don’t have this happen, but the sound comes out of the amplifier, it goes back through the guitar, so you can control how much sustain you want, how much feedback you want, and the whole thing shakes. You feel it. It’s the best thing in the world, for me.”

We hear that you used a Duo Jet on your latest album, The Devil Always Collects?

“I think the first song I wrote for [the album] was Rock Boys Rock. I wasn’t getting the sound I wanted out of the 6120; it just was not matching how frantic the song had become. 

“So I plugged in this Duo Jet I’ve got – it’s a Frankenstein: a ’57 [body], ’58 [neck] Duo Jet – and I just turned it up a little bit louder than I normally would. Jason [Orris, studio engineer] and I looked at each other and were like, ‘Oh gosh, that’s it!’ 

“Little things like that inspire you to keep writing, to keep moving in a certain direction. On the last record it was this old reverb unit that got me to write songs. On this record it was the Duo Jet.”

What’s the Duo Jet’s story?

“I’ve had it for close to my entire life. I think it came from Canada originally, and it’s been worked on a lot; I’m not sure how much of a Duo Jet is really left in that guitar, really. 

“I used it on my first Rockabilly Riot album [2005], when I did all the Sun [Records] sessions covers, and it sounded great ’cos I wanted the old single-coil sound. But when I cranked it up a little more than I should this time, it became that kind of flange-monster thing. 

“What a great-sounding guitar! I don’t know what it is about it. It’s almost Telecaster-like but not as mellow. It’s got more twang to it. So I used it on most of the record, and this is my first record where I didn’t play the 6120 that much.”

• The Devil Always Collects is available now on Surfdog Records.

The years might roll by, but in Brian Setzer’s world, it is forever the '50s. There’s the quiff, still upstanding at 62. The rack of Gretsch antiquities, gleaming like the hubcaps of the hot-rods parked on his driveway. 

The lyrics, exploring a hinterland of diners, drive-ins, jukeboxes and switchblades. The kingpin of modern rockabilly can even use the term ‘cat’, without irony, and pull it off.   

But the image of an artist preserved in aspic doesn’t quite fit. Because while the twang is still the thang on the Stray Cats frontman’s new solo album, Gotta Have The Rumble, Setzer’s arrangements and voicings also give the ’billy a decisive nudge onwards. 

“When I take a whole different genre and put it into my rockabilly world,” he tell us, “that’s what lights me up the most.” 

What’s the significance of that album title, Gotta Have The Rumble? 

“Of course, it’s a reference to my motorcycles, which give me my peace and quiet, believe it or not. That’s my meditation – I just hop on and ride. But then it became about the tinnitus I had going on and the bigger amps I had to use. So I thought, ‘Well, Gotta Have The Rumble, that refers to both things.’”

How bad was the tinnitus? 

“It was driving me mad. Everything was getting louder on stage. I’d say to [Stray Cats rhythm section, Slim] Jim [Phantom] and Lee [Rocker], ‘Are you guys turning up?’ ‘Nah, we’re just playin’, man.’ All of a sudden, it was like, ‘Ah, it’s the earplugs.’ They’d gone bad. It’s real and you have to address it. 

“I saw an audiologist and I’m okay now, but for those people who don’t have it, imagine a tea kettle going off in your head, 24/7. Like, ‘Turn off the kettle!’ ‘It’s already off!’ Everything was starting to fall apart. The guitar, the amps and me had all pretty much fallen apart. We needed a break.”

What emotions does that condition bring up for a guitar player? 

“It’s horrible. Never mind thinking about playing music again. Playing was actually a relief because it would take your mind off it. It was the quieter times that drove you nuts, y’know, when you tried to sleep or just go for a peaceful walk. It goes on all the time. It’s maddening, is all I can say. 

“If I could recommend to all your readers – please wear some earplugs, now. Because we didn’t wear ’em. Over the years, you didn’t question anything. You’re in the next town, there’s your guitar – get up there and rock ’n’ roll.”

• How to protect your hearing – the most important part of your guitar tone

What guitars did you bring into the studio?

“It’s pretty much all Gretsch. Because I find if I stray from my Gretsch arsenal, it doesn’t sound like me. But here’s the thing. I’m looking at three vintage Gretsch guitars right now. One doesn’t play in tune. One has scratchy pickups. On the other, the Bigsby is broke, right?

“But when I get the itch and I want to go down to the studio, I don’t want to mess around. So I have a newer black 6120 Setzer model – it’s maybe four years old – and it plays so well. I picked up a ’59, too, but when I plugged them both in, I preferred the new one. So I played that Setzer model on most of the tracks you hear. Some of them are a ’59, and on Turn You On, Turn Me On, that’s an old Duo Jet.”

Why does Gretsch cast such a spell over you? 

“As a kid, listening to the radio, I felt like the most important thing was to have your own tone. At that time, I was hearing Eric Clapton, Creedence Clearwater Revival – and I knew those players right away because of the guitar tone. So even back then, I realised, I gotta get that together. 

“A Gibson, to me, was too muddy; I didn’t want that tone. And a Fender, to me, was too thin. But the Gretsch was right in between them. It got the twang of the Fender and the fatness of the Gibson. It fit perfectly for me.”

The Tele seems like it’d be great for rockabilly, too. Don’t you like them? 

“I do like Telecasters. But it’s funny with guitars: I like the way other people play ’em. I’ve always been fascinated with the looks of a Stratocaster. I love the way they look. They’re mid-century modern art. Y’know, it looks like an old '50s coffee table. But I can’t play ’em. I don’t like the scale. It’s got the middle pickup and the volume knob right in the way. I love the way other people play ’em, I just can’t get a sound out of ’em.”

Are the Gretsches worth the feedback? 

“I’ve never gotten a feedback out of ’em that I can’t control. Part of the sound for me on the Gretsch is that I play with that extra gain. The sound comes back through the guitar, through the f-holes, so moving around the amp, you can play with sustain, you can play with overtones. 

“That’s why I never needed anything like an overdrive pedal. Because if I wanted a little more gain, I’d just stand closer to the amp. And then, if I wanted it to be more twangy, I’d just turn away from the amp. So I didn’t need pedals.”

How did the tinnitus affect your amp choice this time? 

“I started out with smaller amps. But they just didn’t have the rumble. So I went back to my tried-and-true ’63 Bassmans. Those things are loud. And it was like, ‘There it is!’ I also used the vibrato on an old Fender Bandmaster, and a Deluxe Reverb for the rockabilly traditional. Those three amps pretty much knocked it on the head.”

You’re not alone in your obsession with cars and guitars; think Billy Gibbons and Jeff Beck. What’s the appeal? 

“Jeff can build those damn hot-rods from scratch. He almost cut off the tip of his finger once. I said to him, ‘You’ve gotta remember what’s most important here!’ With the hot-rods, it’s about individual expression. There’s no two hot-rods the same. 

“You’re not just going out and buying a new Bentley. That only takes money. Hot-rods, you’ve got to create it and then you get to ride around in that thing. It’s like rolling art. For me, also, with the motorcycles and the cars, it’s adrenaline. It’s about going fast. It gives me that rush.”

What role does the car play in rockabilly history? 

“I think it started with the blues, people talking about their new car. Again, it’s your personal expression. Especially with the rockabilly music, it goes with the whole lifestyle. Because if you’ve got the car, you got the guitar and you got the gal – you got the whole package. 

“The only all-car album I can think of is The Beach Boys when they did Little Deuce Coupe [1963]. That entire album was about cars. I don’t know if there’s anything like that in rockabilly. But there’s enough songs to pick and choose.”

What’s more impressive – your car collection or your guitar collection? 

“Here’s the thing. I don’t have anything I don’t use. I don’t have wall-hanger guitars or closet guitars. I don’t have, certainly, the money or the time for a big car collection. I can pretty much get by with what I work on, and that’s my rule of thumb: if I don’t play it or I don’t ride it, I don’t have it.”

You’ve said the inspiration for Smash Up On Highway One was Dick Dale. 

“Yeah, that’s true. When the Stray Cats toured in 2019, I was playing Misirlou. I really liked the Eastern hook of that track. I thought, ‘Man, I’d like to write something like that.’ So I came up with that crazy lick. I don’t know what scale it is, actually. It’s a mode, but I don’t think it’s exact – it probably has a note or two changed.

“Maybe one of your readers can weigh in on that. The idea was to insert that into my sound, which is the rockabilly base. Then there’s The Cat With 9 Wives: the note in that lick should be an E, but I play an Eb, which I thought was kinda clever. It’s kind of a passing tone. That’s how you keep the whole thing fresh – you keep inventing things.”

Do you think there’s a correlation between rockabilly and surf music? 

“It’s interesting you say that. I know a lot of rockabilly musicians and they’re really influenced by the surf music. There does seem to be an overlap in the guitar tone, with the reverb. The Ventures’ Live In Japan ’65 – my God, it’s fantastic.”

How did you get that amazing tone on Stack My Money? 

“Isn’t that a good sound? The hardest sound to get, for me, is a strong, clean tone, without it breaking up or being plunky. Back in the day, Chet Atkins was always after that – he wanted a clear sustain. We got that tone quite by accident. I used the Deluxe Reverb, an early '60s one, y’know, the blackface with the one speaker. And by accident, we left the vocal mic on. 

“It was way distant, right? I came in and I played, and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s just what I’m looking for.’ And the engineer said, ‘Wait, I just gotta turn off the vocal mic.’ When he turned off the vocal mic, the sound went away. It was like, ‘Put that vocal mic back on!’ – and it happened again. So, trial and error.”

The arrangement of The Wrong Side Of The Tracks is really sophisticated.

“That ain’t rockabilly. That could be a theme song from a '50s rockabilly movie, with the strings and chord changes. But there wouldn’t be a blues or rockabilly musician who would have written that. That’s more like something you would hear from Elmer Bernstein. I’m not comparing myself to one of those composers. But that’s a soundtrack that I made into a rockabilly song. It’s got sophisticated chord work, but I made it fit into my world.”

When you think about the architects of rockabilly guitar technique from the '40s and '50s, who do you regard most highly? 

“For me, there’s two guys – and then there’s a hundred guys you’ve never heard of. Let me start with the hundred guys you’ve never heard of. Because the hundred guys who did a great guitar solo in the '50s, they came out of the hills, or they drove a truck for a living. And they had one song, and they drove to a little studio in Memphis or somewhere, and they made the song – and if it wasn’t a hit, they were back driving the truck. And you’d go, ‘Who was that?’ Nobody knows.

“Like, who played the guitar solo on Red Hot? I know it was Roland Janes. But nobody knows who that is. Nobody really knows who the two popular guys who most affected me are – Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup. I’m sure if you asked 90 per cent of today’s guitar players, they might not know those two. But they were the most consistent guys, the two who kept coming up and hitting the ball out of the park.”

If you could set the controls of a time machine to any city and scene, where would you go? 

“I’d go back to Memphis in ’56. You have to remember how conservative our societies were back then. To be making that music back then – to be really shaking it up – it must have been incredible.”

Why does rockabilly have such an enduring appeal? 

“Because it comes from the heart. It speaks to you. It’s like the blues. But, to me, it’s much more exciting than the blues. It’s sexy. It has the whole musical package. It has the style. It has pizazz. It’s not about combing your hair a certain way or wearing a certain outfit. It gets something going inside you. And for guitar players, it’s the best music you can play. You can do anything with it. You can inject jazz, country, blues, into that style.”

Do you think rockabilly players need a whole different skill set? Could a rock guitarist play this stuff? 

“Well, let’s just take two generic guys. If you take a generic rocker and tell him to play rockabilly, no. Because the rockabilly players are versed more in fingerpicking, which comes from Chet Atkins, and single-string solos, which come from people like Charlie Christian, they come from jazz.

“I guarantee you that 99 per cent of the rock guys could not play rockabilly. Could it go the other way? Yeah, I think it could. Because rock music is more based on chords, and single-string riffs that are based on a pentatonic scale. So without being a snob, I don’t think the rock guys could do the ’billy.”

• Gotta Have That Rumble is out now via Surfdog/Mascot Label Group.

Brian Setzer has shared Smash Up On Highway One, the second single from his forthcoming album, Gotta Have the Rumble.

A rockabilly number at its core – albeit with “Middle Eastern” scale elements, as Setzer describes – the track incorporates a similar electric guitar twang as the record's first single, Checkered Flag, however with markedly more emphasis on leads. Check it out below.

“I usually start out with a guitar riff,” says Setzer. “I was playing Miserlou by Dick Dale with the Stray Cats, and I thought, ‘I'd love to write something as cool as that riff.’ So I came up with something out of left field. I don't know what you would call it – Middle Eastern or Eastern European.

“Some college professor probably has a name for that scale. I had that riff laying around. I guess you could say I'm always collecting cool guitar parts. [Co-writer] Mike Himelstein sent me those lyrics and they just fit right in. 

“I think it's really cool – it's a way to move the whole rockabilly genre forward. The surf drum part in there with the guy playing the tom-toms similar to Wipeout. I love it.”

Setzer says the upcoming album is “a reference to my motorcycles and hot rods. 

“I still have the same passion for going fast and adrenaline,” he says. “But it's also about my hearing problems with tinnitus – the ringing of the ear: it was pretty bad, and I realized I couldn't play the way I wanted to.

“As I recovered, standing in front of a small amplifier just didn't cut it. The sound from my big amps makes the guitar rumble, which is a big part of my sound. I was really despondent for a while because I thought I wouldn't be able to do that again. So, Gotta Have the Rumble refers to both of those things. 

Gotta Have the Rumble is available now for preorder. Check out its tracklisting below:

1. Checkered Flag
2. Smash Up On Highway One
3. Stack My Money
4. The Wrong Side Of The Tracks
5. Drip Drop
6. The Cat With 9 Wives
7. Turn You On, Turn Me On
8. Rockabilly Riot
9. Off Your Rocker
10. One Bad Habit
11. Rockabilly Banjo

Guitar great Brian Setzer has announced his forthcoming solo album Gotta Have the Rumble, and has given everyone their first taste with the record's lead single, Checkered Flag. 

This outing, set for release via Surfdog Records on August 27, will be the three-time Grammy Award-winner's first solo album in seven years, and will see Setzer strap on his Gretsch 6120 Hot Rod Custom electric guitar once again for 11 all-new tracks.

“Obviously, it’s a reference to my motorcycles and hot rods, something that hasn’t changed since I was 15 years old,” said the Stray Cats legend. “I still have the same passion for going fast and adrenaline. But it’s also about my hearing problems with tinnitus – the ringing of the ear: it was pretty bad, and I realized I couldn’t play the way I wanted to.

"As I recovered, standing in front of a small amplifier just didn’t cut it," he continued. "The sound from my big amps makes the guitar rumble. Which is a big part of my sound. I was really despondent for a while because I thought I wouldn’t be able to do that again. So, Gotta Have the Rumble refers to both of those things.”

The album, which features 11 songs written or co-written by the rockabilly icon, was recorded in Minneapolis and produced by Julian Raymond, whose credits include Cheap Trick and Glen Campbell.

Last year, Setzer decided to sell off some of his iconic guitar gear, including his 6120 Smoke Prototype, his leopard-print Hot Rod Highlight and a handful of classic amps on Reverb.com. 

The rockabilly ace also once told us “nothing feels right after a Gretsch” – something he still clearly believes with the release of this new record. 

The tracklisting for Gotta Have the Rumble is as follows: 

1. Checkered Flag
2. Smash Up On Highway One
3. Stack My Money
4. The Wrong Side Of The Tracks
5. Drip Drop
6. The Cat With 9 Wives
7. Turn You On, Turn Me On
8. Rockabilly Riot
9. Off Your Rocker
10. One Bad Habit
11. Rockabilly Banjo

Gotta Have The Rumble is available for preorder now.

Julien’s huge Gretsch Family Archives auction is scheduled for March 26-27, and it's shaping up to be a gear spectacular.

The two-day auction, which benefits the Gretsch Family Foundation, features hundreds of items from the company’s archives – among them vintage electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers, drums, mandolins, banjos, awards prototypes and memorabilia, as well as furniture, luthier tools, materials and patterns from the factory – going on the block for the first time.

Highlights include Tom Petty and George Harrison’s Silvertone Daneletro electric guitar, Bono’s Irish Falcon Model 6136 Green Gretsch prototype and John Prine’s signed Gretsch Historic Series G3100 acoustic.

In advance of the auction, Julien's has released a new video preview with Fred W. Gretsch himself, as well as Executive Director and CFO Martin Nolan, detailing some of the one-of-a-kind items hitting the block. You can check it out above.

And for a closer look at some of the gear going up for auction, see below:

- A Silvertone Danelectro guitar owned by Tom Petty and George Harrison gifted to Fred Gretsch (in 1987) as the prototype of “The Traveling Wilburys” Gretsch guitar line (auction estimate: $20,000 - $40,000).

- A Gretsch prototype Bono Irish Falcon Model 6136 electric guitar, green finish, two pickups, with “The Goal is Soul” on the pickguard, gold hardware and no case (estimate $8,000 – $10,000).

- A Gretsch Historic Series G3100 acoustic guitar signed by John Prine (estimate $700 – $900).

- Various Chet Atkins Gretsch guitars, including a 1964 Gretsch Chet Atkins Nashville PX6120 with orange finish, two gold Filter’Tron pickups, V-Cut Bigsby vibrato, Gretsch pickguard with signature and black pad on the back and gold tuners; a 1959 Chet Atkins PX6121 with an orange finish, single cutaway, mahogany body, two gold Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays, gold hardware, replaced pickguard and replaced tuners and accompanied by its original case; and a 1963 Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean PX6119 with dark cherry finish, single cutaway, two Hi-Lo Tron pickups, bound rosewood fingerboard, chrome tuners and Gretsch V-Cut Bigsby vibrato and accompanied by its original case (estimate range $2,000 – $5,000).

- A 1960 Gretsch Silver Jet electric guitar with Silver Sparkle top, walnut sides and back, mahogany body, ebony fingerboard with inlays, and two chrome PAF Filter’ Tron pickups, accompanied by its original case (estimate $3,000 - $5,000).

- A 1961 Gretsch Duo Jet PX6128 electric guitar with black top, walnut back and sides, two chrome Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays, chrome hardware, and original open back tuners, accompanied by its original case (estimate $3,000 - $5,000).

- Several Gretsch Brian Setzer signature model electric guitars including his 1993 prototype Nashville signature model with all lacquer finish; a Gretsch G6120SSL Brian Setzer signature model with orange finish; and a Gretsch 6120SSU Brian Setzer Signature model (estimate range $2,000 – $5,000 each).

- A Gretsch 6120 Duane Eddy electric guitar with orange finish and Bigsby tremolo (estimate $1,000 - $2,000).

- A Gretsch prototype Electromatic Bo Diddley acoustic-electric.

- A 1957 Gretsch Round Up PX6130 with orange finish, Western-motif tooled leather sides, two Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays, Bigsby bridge, Bigsby vibrato, and new Kluson tuners, accompanied by its original case (estimate $3,000 – $5,000).

Additionally, the auction will feature several guitars from Randy Bachman’s personal collection, which is counted at over 300 Gretsch instruments.

Highlights include one of two Bachman #199 Japanese prototypes of a 1989 Gretsch Country Classic with dark walnut finish, two Filter’Tron pickups, gold hardware and Gretsch Bigsby vibrato that Bachman received from Fred Gretsch; Bachman #218, Gretsch White Penguin electric guitar copy with white finish, gold sparkle binding, two Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays and gold pickguard; Bachman #411, an early 1990’s Gretsch Black Falcon 7594 BLK prototype electric guitar and more. 

"Gretsch instruments are one of the most iconic and renowned in the world and are part of American pop culture," said Darren Julien, President/Chief Executive Officer of Julien’s Auctions. "We are honored to bring to auction this historic archive of the trailblazing Gretsch Family whose innovations and leadership produced these magnificent visual and sonic works of art that elevated the legends who played them."

Also on the block are Gretsch tailpieces, banjo necks and bridges as well as vintage guitar neck patterns, a rolling rack with ten drawers of saw blades, metal clamps with a large wooden hand drill, an antique cabinet, body forms, wrenches, a sanding table, vintage four wheel open carts, and even Tony Bennett’s Harley Davidson 100-Year Anniversary Road King motorcycle (that one will run you anywhere from $10,000 – $20,000).

The Property from the Gretsch Family Archives Benefitting the Gretsch Foundation auction takes place on March 26 and 27 in Beverly Hills and live online at juliensauctions.com.

Julien’s has announced a massive Gretsch Family Archives auction, highlighted by Tom Petty and George Harrison’s Silvertone Daneletro electric guitar, Bono’s Irish Falcon Model 6136 Green Gretsch prototype and John Prine’s signed Gretsch Historic Series G3100 acoustic.

The two-day auction, which benefits the Gretsch Family Foundation, features hundreds of items from the company’s archives – among them vintage electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers, drums, mandolins, banjos, awards prototypes and memorabilia, as well as furniture, luthier tools, materials and patterns from the factory – going on the block for the first time.

There’s a lot to dig into here, but we've cherry-picked some highlights, including:

- A Silvertone Danelectro guitar owned by Tom Petty and George Harrison gifted to Fred Gretsch (in 1987) as the prototype of “The Traveling Wilburys” Gretsch guitar line (auction estimate: $20,000 - $40,000).

- A Gretsch prototype Bono Irish Falcon Model 6136 electric guitar, green finish, two pickups, with “The Goal is Soul” on the pickguard, gold hardware and no case (estimate $8,000 – $10,000).

- A Gretsch Historic Series G3100 acoustic guitar signed by John Prine (estimate $700 – $900).

- Various Chet Atkins Gretsch guitars, including a 1964 Gretsch Chet Atkins Nashville PX6120 with orange finish, two gold Filter’Tron pickups, V-Cut Bigsby vibrato, Gretsch pickguard with signature and black pad on the back and gold tuners; a 1959 Chet Atkins PX6121 with an orange finish, single cutaway, mahogany body, two gold Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays, gold hardware, replaced pickguard and replaced tuners and accompanied by its original case; and a 1963 Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean PX6119 with dark cherry finish, single cutaway, two Hi-Lo Tron pickups, bound rosewood fingerboard, chrome tuners and Gretsch V-Cut Bigsby vibrato and accompanied by its original case (estimate range $2,000 – $5,000).

- A 1960 Gretsch Silver Jet electric guitar with Silver Sparkle top, walnut sides and back, mahogany body, ebony fingerboard with inlays, and two chrome PAF Filter’ Tron pickups, accompanied by its original case (estimate $3,000 - $5,000).

- A 1961 Gretsch Duo Jet PX6128 electric guitar with black top, walnut back and sides, two chrome Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays, chrome hardware, and original open back tuners, accompanied by its original case (estimate $3,000 - $5,000).

- Several Gretsch Brian Setzer signature model electric guitars including his 1993 prototype Nashville signature model with all lacquer finish; a Gretsch G6120SSL Brian Setzer signature model with orange finish; and a Gretsch 6120SSU Brian Setzer Signature model (estimate range $2,000 – $5,000 each).

- A Gretsch 6120 Duane Eddy electric guitar with orange finish and Bigsby tremolo (estimate $1,000 - $2,000).

- A Gretsch prototype Electromatic Bo Diddley acoustic-electric.

- A 1957 Gretsch Round Up PX6130 with orange finish, Western-motif tooled leather sides, two Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays, Bigsby bridge, Bigsby vibrato, and new Kluson tuners, accompanied by its original case (estimate $3,000 – $5,000).

Additionally, the auction will feature several guitars from Randy Bachman’s personal collection, which is counted at over 300 Gretsch instruments.

Highlights include one of two Bachman #199 Japanese prototypes of a 1989 Gretsch Country Classic with dark walnut finish, two Filter’Tron pickups, gold hardware and Gretsch Bigsby vibrato that Bachman received from Fred Gretsch; Bachman #218, Gretsch White Penguin electric guitar copy with white finish, gold sparkle binding, two Filter’Tron pickups, ebony fingerboard with inlays and gold pickguard; Bachman #411, an early 1990’s Gretsch Black Falcon 7594 BLK prototype electric guitar and more. 

"Gretsch instruments are one of the most iconic and renowned in the world and are part of American pop culture," said Darren Julien, President/Chief Executive Officer of Julien’s Auctions. "We are honored to bring to auction this historic archive of the trailblazing Gretsch Family whose innovations and leadership produced these magnificent visual and sonic works of art that elevated the legends who played them."

Also on the block are Gretsch tailpieces, banjo necks and bridges as well as vintage guitar neck patterns, a rolling rack with ten drawers of saw blades, metal clamps with a large wooden hand drill, an antique cabinet, body forms, wrenches, a sanding table, vintage four wheel open carts, and even Tony Bennett’s Harley Davidson 100-Year Anniversary Road King motorcycle (that one will run you anywhere from $10,000 – $20,000).

The Property from the Gretsch Family Archives Benefitting the Gretsch Foundation auction takes place on March 26 and 27 in Beverly Hills and live online at juliensauctions.com.

Brian Setzer once told us that “nothing feels right after a Gretsch”, but it appears the rockabilly legend is finally looking to start thinning his collection, as he’s putting several of his rarest electric guitar models up for sale on Reverb.

The Official Brian Setzer Reverb Shop is set to open on August 26, and features a bevy of Gretsch one-offs, including a prototype of Setzer’s signature model, the 6120T ‘Smoke’, as well as a leopard-print Hot Rod, and ‘Grinch’ Spectra Baritone.

"So I guess you're wondering why I'm selling all these guitars," a characteristically cheeky Setzer says in the video above. "I've heard that you can only play one at a time – I don't know if I believe that, but that's what I've heard."

There are a handful of classic guitar amps up for grabs, too, including a 1963 Blonde Bassman and ’60s Vox AC30.

Have a scroll through our gallery below for a closer look at highlights from the sale, and head over to Reverb for more info.

Summer NAMM may not be taking place this year, but Gretsch has still unveiled a slew of new models, highlighted by signature electric guitars from Rich Robinson, Brian Setzer, Michael Guy Chislett and Tiger Army’s Nick 13.

There are also new Electromatics, Streamliner and Falcon models, as well as a pair of affordably-priced acoustics and more.

For the skinny on all the new releases, read on.

G5230T Nick 13 Signature Electromatic Tiger Jet with Bigsby

The signature model from Tiger Army’s Nick 13 features a mahogany body, mahogany neck, 12-inch-radius laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets, Bigsby B50 vibrato tailpiece and anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge.

There’s also Black Top Filter’Tron pickups with individual volume controls, master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit.

Other features include an oxblood pickguard with TigerBat logo and matching truss rod cover with Nick’s signature, cream pickup inserts, chrome hardware and pearloid TigerBat inlays.

The guitar is offered in Black with white binding for $599/£609.

G6128T Players Edition Jet DS with Bigsby

The Jet DS sports a select mahogany body with maple top, as well as a 1.85-inch depth along with vintage chambering.

Other features include a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard, with a lowered neck set for improved fret-hand mobility and Gretsch’s new full-access rolled cutaway and tapered heel.

There’s also a pair of Dynasonic pickups at the bridge and neck, an anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge and Bigsby B7CP String-Thru tailpiece, a no-load master tone pot with Squeezebox paper-in-oil capacitor, master volume with treble bleed circuit and individual pickup volume controls.

The Jet DS is available in Black, Dark Cherry Metallic, Lotus Ivory and Sahara Metallic for $2,299/£2,139.

G5655TG Electromatic Center Block Jr. Single-Cut with Bigsby and Gold Hardware

The G5655TG features a smaller-sized body with a chambered spruce center block.

There’s also a lower set maple neck and a 12-inch-radius laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays, a Bigsby B70 vibrato tailpiece and anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge.

Pickups are a pair of Black Top Broad’Tron humbuckers with individual volume controls, master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit.

The G5655TG is available in Black Gold and Aspen Green with a gold pickguard and gold hardware for $899/£899.

G2215-P90 Streamliner Junior Jet Club

The Streamliner Junior Jet sports a bound nato body, mahogany-stained neck and 12-inch-radius laurel fingerboard with pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets.

Other features include Broad’Tron BT-2S bridge and P90 Soap Bar pickups, master tone control, master volume control and three-way pickup switching, an anchored compensated wrap-around bridge, gold Electro-style control knobs, cream pickguard and nickel hardware.

The guitar comes in Mint Metallic, Sahara Metallic and Single Barrel Stain for $349/£355.

G6636TSL Players Edition Silver Falcon Center Block Double-Cut With String-Thru Bigsby

The G6636TSL sports a slightly smaller 16-inch double-cutaway laminated maple Falcon body and a chambered spruce center block.

There’s also an ebony fingerboard with pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays, anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge, Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut, string-thru Bigsby B7CP, Grover strap locks and Gotoh locking tuners.

High Sensitive Filter’Tron pickups are paired with a master volume with treble bleed circuit, master tone, individual pickup volume controls and three-way toggle switch.

The G6636TSL is offered in Black with silver sparkle binding, jeweled G-arrow control knobs, chrome hardware and silver pickguard with silver Gretsch logo and Falcon graphic for $3,499/£3,249.

G6120T-HR Brian Setzer Signature Hot Rod Hollow Body with Bigsby

The G6120T-HR Brian Setzer sports a single-cutaway hollow body with an arched maple top with ‘59 trestle bracing and oversized F-holes.

There’s also a maple neck with a a 9.5-12-inch compound radius rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, 22 medium frets and pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

Dual TV Jones Brian Setzer Signature Filter’Tron humbuckers are paired with a three-position toggle switch and master volume control with treble bleed circuit.

Other features include a pinned Adjusto-Matic bridge with rosewood base, Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece, Delrin nut and Gotoh locking tuners.

The G6120T-HR is offered in Magenta Sparkle with nickel hardware for $2,799/£2,769.

G6120TFM-BSNV Brian Setzer Signature Nashville with Bigsby and Flame Maple

The G6120TFM boasts a single-cutaway hollow body with a tiger flame maple arched top, back and sides with 1959 trestle bracing and oversized F-holes.

The set maple neck sports a 9.5-12-inch compound radius ebony fingerboard with rolled edges, 22 medium frets and pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

The dual TV Jones Brian Setzer Signature Filter’Tron pickups are joined by a three-position toggle switch, three-position tone switch, master volume control with treble bleed circuit and individual bridge and neck pickup volume controls.

There’s also an Adjusto-Matic bridge with pinned rosewood base, Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece, Delrin nut and Gotoh locking tuners.

The G6120TFM comes in Orange Stain with a period-correct gold pickguard shape, size and bracket, white body and neck binding, nickel hardware and G-arrow knobs for $3,299/£2,769.

G6136T-RR Rich Robinson Signature Falcon with Bigsby

The G6136T Rich Robinson features a three-ply hollow maple body with solid spruce top and 1959-style trestle bracing with a spruce block under the bridge and oversized F-holes.

There’s also a 12-inch-radius ebony fingerboard with 22 medium frets and mother of pearl Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays, a TV Jones Classic humbucker at the bridge and a Broad’Tron  BT65 pickup at the neck.

The control layout features separate bridge and neck volume knobs, a three-way toggle switch and master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit.

Other features include Grover Imperial tuners, amber jeweled G-arrow control knobs, bone nut, Adjusto-Matic bridge with pinned ebony base and string-thru Bigsby B6 tailpiece.

The G6136T comes in a Raven’s Breast Blue gloss lacquer finish, with a silver pickguard adorned with Magpie logo, silver sparkle body and neck binding and nickel hardware, for $3,799/£3,519.

G6136T-MGC Michael Guy Chislett Signature Falcon with Bigsby

The Michael Guy Chislett signature features a hollow laminated maple body and a solid Sitka spruce top with bound F-holes and vintage 1959-style trestle bracing.

Other features include a semi-gloss maple neck, 12-inch-radius ebony fingerboard with pearloid Big Block inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets, TV Jones TV Classic pickups, a three-way toggle switch, individual pickup volume controls, master tone and a master volume with treble bleed circuit with Squeezebox paper-in-oil capacitors.

There’s also a Bigsby B6GP vibrato tailpiece and Adjusto-Matic bridge with ebony base and bone nut.

The G6136T-MGC is offered in a Vintage White gloss lacquer finish with gold sparkle binding, gold pickguard and gold hardware for $3,799/£3,519.

G5230T Electromatic Jet FT Single-Cut with Bigsby

The G5230T sports a chambered mahogany body with maple top, mahogany neck and laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

There’s also a pair of Black Top Filter’Tron pickups with individual volume controls, master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit.

Other features include a Bigsby B50 vibrato tailpiece, anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge, bound headstock, plain-face head cap, vintage-inspired purfling, closed back tuning keys and chrome hardware.

The guitar is available in Cadillac Green with silver pickguard for $599/£569.

G5220 Electromatic Jet BT Single-Cut with V-Stoptail

The Electromatic Jet BT boasts a chambered mahogany body with maple top, lower set mahogany neck and 12-inch-radius laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets.

There’s also Black Top Broad’Tron pickups with individual volume controls, master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit, Gretsch V-Stoptail tailpiece, anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge, bound headstock, plain-face head cap, vintage-inspired purfling and closed back tuning keys.

The guitar is available in Firestick Red with silver pickguard for $499/£495.

G5230LH Electromatic Jet FT Single-Cut with V-Stoptail, Left-Handed

The G5230LH features a chambered mahogany body with maple top, mahogany neck and laurel fingerboard with pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

A pair of Black Top Filter’Tron pickups are controlled by individual volume knobs, master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit.

Other features include a bound headstock, plain-face head cap, vintage-inspired purfling, closed back tuning keys, Gretsch V-Stoptail, black plexi pickguard and pickup bezels and chrome hardware.

The guitar is offered in Airline Silver for $599/£569.

G9500 Limited Edition Jim Dandy

The Jim Dandy Flat Top parlor-style model sports a non-cutaway basswood body with X-bracing, a C-shape nato neck and walnut fingerboard with vintage-style frets and pearloid dot inlays.

Other features include a top-load walnut bridge with compensated synthetic bone saddle, 1950s-style vintage open-gear die-cast tuning machines, nickel hardware and single-ply aged white pickguard featuring a “G” graphic.

The guitar comes in an Oxblood finish for $169/£195.

G9520E Gin Rickey Acoustic/Electric with Soundhole Pickup

The G. Rickey features an X-braced basswood body, C-shape nato neck and walnut fingerboard with 18 vintage-style frets and pearloid dot inlays.

There’s also a top-load walnut bridge with compensated synthetic bone saddle and a Gretsch Deltoluxe acoustic magnetic soundhole pickup.

Appointments include aged white body binding and an aged white “G”-graphic pickguard, gold-and-white soundhole rosette with gold double-line top striping, nickel hardware, vintage-style end-pin strap buttons and open-gear die-cast tuners.

The guitar comes in a Smokestack Black finish for $249/£275.

G2655TG-P90 Limited Edition Streamliner Center Block Jr. with Bigsby and Gold Hardware

The double-cutaway G2655TG-P90 features a smaller double-cutaway laminated maple body with a chambered spruce center block, nato neck and laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid Big Block inlays.

Pickups are a Broad’Tron BT-2S at the bridge and a P90 Soap Bar at the neck, with master volume, master tone, two volume controls and three-way toggle switch.

There’s also a gold Bigsby-licensed B50 vibrato tailpiece, anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge and aged white binding with purfling.

The guitar is offered in a limited-edition Matte Black finish with gold hardware for $599/£579.

For more information on all the new models, head to Gretsch Guitars.

On August 18, 1988, a horde of name-brand musicians got together to celebrate the life and music of guitar great Les Paul, who was 73 at the time.

The show that was filmed that night was eventually released on a now-sought-after VHS tape called Les Paul & Friends: He Changed the Music: LIVE at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

In short (in contrast to the tape's ridiculously not-short title), the cameras caught some magical guitar moments in Brooklyn that evening. You can relive one of them below.

Near the end of the evening, Stray Cats - featuring Gretsch-loving axman Brian Setzer - launched into Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes. After singing all the verses, Setzer bellowed, "Hey, Eddie Van Halen, get your butt up here, man!" - thus opening the floodgates to an impressive list of guest guitarists.

Below, check out the jammy portion of the Blue Suede Shoes performance. It kicks off with a bluesy-tapping solo by Van Halen, followed by David Gilmour, B.B. King and Stanley Jordan (Waylon Jennings is clearly impressed by Jordan, as you can see in the clip). 

Up next is Steve Miller, who kicks off his solo by playing his Les Paul behind his back. Finally, Les Paul, the man of honor, appears, hoping to show the youngsters a thing or two.

The funny thing about the clip is how long it takes for everyone to appear on stage after Setzer calls out their names. Early on, Gilmour can be seen turning around and heading back off-stage for some reason.

It’s been 40 years since the Stray Cats first got together, and in celebration of that milestone the band have reformed for a tour and a new studio album, 40, which they recorded in Nashville at the end of 2018.

The exciting news for fans is that rather than simply throwing a few covers together, the band came up with a disc of all-new original material that stands comfortably side by side with the best work in their catalog.

Covering all the bases, from straight-ahead rockabilly to moody spaghetti-western-vibed cuts, the constant is the clear commitment to creating a legacy-worthy body of work instead of a going-through-the-motions cash-in.

Most of the songs are penned by frontman-guitarist Brian Setzer - either on his own or in collaboration with Mike Himelstein, who has co-composer credits (with Setzer) on a number of Brian Setzer Orchestra tunes.

The exception is When Nothing’s Going Right, which was written and sung by bassist Lee Rocker. One of the catchiest tracks on the album, it would’ve been a sure-fire hit single back in the day. Drummer Slim Jim Phantom is in fine form in 'human metronome' mode, and the whole package is a potent snapshot of state-of-the-art rockabilly in the 21st century.

Central to most songs is the instantly identifiable voice of Brian Setzer and his equally distinctive guitar licks. Whether blazing through a high-octane rockabilly shred piece or comping through the entire jazz chord book, the signature Setzer Gretsch tone is right there, up-front and in your face. Setzer - arguably the greatest rockabilly guitarist of all time - manages to find new ways to wring out riffs, solos and fills that revitalize the genre.

Whether discussing the new album, guitars, the roots of the Stray Cats or particular forgotten tracks from across the years, Setzer is enthusiastic and passionate about the music he plays and appreciative of the fact that he’s been able to sustain a long career doing the thing he loves most.

I think all Stray Cats fans would’ve been delighted just to see you play one more tour together, so the announcement that you were about to release an album of new material was more than they could’ve hoped for. Were the songs written for the band, or were they songs you and Lee would’ve used anyway in other projects?

"I started writing songs just out of the blue. It’s funny because I always need some kind of inspiration to write, and I got this old Fender Reverb unit. I was really impressed with the sound coming out of it, and I started writing spaghetti westerns. I had no idea where that came from.

"Then I spoke to Jim, and he said, 'Hey, it’s our 40th anniversary coming up. We should do something.' I got kinda excited by that and said, 'Let me write a song for you.' All of a sudden it started to snowball, and I had three or four of those. I suppose still it wasn’t specifically Stray Cats songs as such, more that I was writing music."

Had you and Lee been in close contact over the years?

"Oh yeah, we’d been in touch, but I suppose it was mostly me and Jim. I’d maybe be watching sports or something and I might call Jim and say, 'Hey, did you see that?' But I think writing the tunes really inspired us to get the ball rolling."

In one of the promo clips for 40, producer Peter Collins says there’s a certain kind of magic when the three of you play together. I know you’ve all got great players in your separate projects, but do you feel that spark when you’re all together?

"Yeah, it’s like a sibling thing. It’s a definite chemistry when the three of us play. You can’t say why it happens, but you know that it does."

Does this feel like a one-off venture or is it possible you could keep all the strands of your career going on a rotating basis?

"I’ve only done three shows to get things going, so why not? It sure felt good doing those three shows."

Well, there’s so much love for the band out there and that desire to see the original three guys together.

"You just never know. I was surprised so many people wanted to see the Stray Cats. I guess we made a much bigger dent than we realized."

Given the significance of the 40-year mark and, in a way, the celebration of the band, I wondered if there had ever been any notion that Dave Edmunds, who produced the first album, might have been involved.

"Absolutely. That was on the table, actually. Dave is kind of retired, though, and he had some personal issues, so he couldn’t do it. I said, 'We’ll come to Wales if you want and record at Rockfield, do it the old way.' It almost happened, too, but with age creeping up and time moving on, we couldn’t make it happen."

You’ve got a worldwide tour coming up. Will you be featuring songs from the new album besides the songs everybody expects to hear?

"Definitely. That was part of the appeal of making the new album. I thought if I had to play I Fought the Law again, you know? It’s a great song, but everybody needs a change sometimes."

I thought it was interesting that your solo on Got Love If You Want It from the new album references your Ubangi Stomp solo from the first Stray Cats album. Was that a deliberate nod or just something in your DNA?

"You know something? It is kind of a takeoff on that. It just came out that way when I played it and I wanted it to sound really loose. I played my old Gretsch Silver Jet on that one. I just started playing it and it sort of fit - [hums the riff] - it’s just a good, rocking riff."

It’s funny that on the Warren Smith original they use that riff only for the intro and outro, but not the solo.

"Yeah. Some of those old records have some amazing riffs and solos. People could ask me who are some of your favorite rockabilly guitarists and I’d have to say 'guys that I can’t even give you the name of.' So many great solos on records where we’ll never know who the guitarist was - especially some of the obscure stuff that might not have ever been a hit.

"There’s like a thousand unknown guys out there who came up with one really great solo, and they weren’t listed anywhere as having played on the song."

You’re also taking the Rockabilly Riot band out on tour once the Stray Cats dates have been completed. Given that there’s a degree of overlap on the set lists, how does the feel differ from playing them with Stray Cats as opposed to the Riot Squad guys?

"It is definitely different. With the Rockabilly Riot guys it’s me, ya know? I play more guitar solos, do more instrumentals. The guys are supporting me, whereas the Stray Cats are a band, and so when we’re playing together it’s about the band. I enjoy them both."

The Brian Setzer Orchestra has been a big part of your career. Is it the logistical and cost constraints that limit how much you can do with the BSO?

"I would definitely do it more often; it’s just too expensive to drag that thing around the world."

You’ve been really prolific for years. What is it that drives you and keeps it fresh for you after all of this time?

"It’s always a guitar riff. I’ll be sitting around and come up with a riff, and it just comes out of me, and it’ll be so inspiring that I’ll have to finish the song. And there are certain tones I still love - tape delay and the twang of a Gretsch, that little Fender Reverb unit - those sounds are so inspiring to me."

Rolling back to the early days of the band, you went to the UK in 1980 to try to make something happen. Was it because there was no real rock ’n’ roll scene in the States at the time?

"Other than what we were starting to stir up, no, absolutely not — particularly in the way the UK had kept not only rock ’n’ roll but blues and jazz alive. Credit where credit’s due for that."

When you hooked up with Dave Edmunds to produce your debut album, it was a funny coincidence that he’d played in a fictional band called the Stray Cats in the 1973 movie That’ll Be The Day. Seems like fate…

"At the time we got together, I had no idea! And being Dave Edmunds, he didn’t even mention it to us until probably the second album. Isn’t that crazy, though?"

The self-titled debut album and its singles - Runaway Boys, Rock This Town and Stray Cat Strut - were very successful, yet the second album, 1981’s Gonna Ball, didn’t do quite as well. [Note: Songs from the first two albums were repackaged into a US-only release called Built for Speed in 1982]. The sound on the second album seems, in hindsight, to be moving more to what you would later do in BSO - more bluesy, jump blues and old-time R&B. You Don’t Believe Me has a great slide guitar part. What prompted the change?

"That was us kind of dropping the ball, I think. Once you get the hit and you got something good going, I would say, 'Sounds great - let’s change it.' And I’m thinking later, 'Why?' I think that was just not really thinking it through. I think we got it back together for the third album, Rant n’ Rave with the Stray Cats [1983]."

That was a great album, yet critics didn’t receive it well. It was that predictable backlash that so many acts suffer after the first flush of success. Did that response frustrate you?

"Man, you’ve got to have a thick skin in this business. You just do what you do. I don’t worry about that kind of thing."

Look at That Cadillac [1984] could’ve been a BSO song. Was that a side of you that you’d been itching to express?

"Well, that’s right. That had always been in the back of my mind. I always knew how to read and write music. I wanted to put a big band behind my guitar, so I think you’re right, that was probably the beginning of that. Writing all those parts and figuring it all out."

After the first real split from the Stray Cats, you came out with your first solo album, The Knife Feels Like Justice [1986]. That was a real left turn for you — two guitars, female backing singers, even the guitar choice with the Telecaster. Was that a conscious decision to shift away from what you were expected to do?

"Not so much a deliberate change, I suppose, but as a musician you want try to do different things. You want to try something new. You try things; some work out great, and sometimes you fall flat on your face. You have to do whatever you feel like or else you’ll only look back and have regrets."

You’ve not revisited a lot of your older songs from the earlier solo years. Is that because you don’t feel they work as well for you now stylistically?

"I think what it is - and it’s a good problem to have, if you ask me - is that I have so many songs that people will expect to hear that I can’t leave out. If I didn’t play certain songs people would get pissed, you know?"

Around that late-'80s, at the end of the first run of Stray Cats and onto the first solo album, you had another guitarist - Tommy Byrnes - in the band. You had a different interplay going on with things like “Stray Cat Strut.” Did it feel too restrictive to have another guitarist ultimately?

"No, it was kinda nice. You could lay back and sing a little more. I got into the -twin guitar solo- thing as well - that was fun to experiment with. At this point it’s really fun to play with a three-piece. I think it’s where I play the best, just a bass and drums - the way it started."

I suppose it must be very liberating for you as well.

"Yes. You can run where you want. With the big band if those guys are hitting a chord, you’d better be hitting that chord. It’s the big leagues. In the three-piece band, if the bass is playing C, I can do any kind of scale or chord working off that root note - you’re more wide open."

Songs from Lonely Avenue [2009] was a great album in your catalog that kind of got overlooked. It had a different feel from a lot of your other work

"That’s an album I thought would’ve gone a little farther. I got nominated for a Grammy for it. It was a real interesting album for me. I recorded it in a basement. I really like the songwriting on that one. I got to play some of the songs live. That’s one that I would’ve liked to have gotten a little more mileage out of because I loved playing those songs."

You’ve been 'Mr Gretsch' for 40 years. Do you play anything different at home? Any Strats or Les Pauls?

"I have a bit of a fascination with Stratocasters, but every time I pick one up, I go, 'I can’t play it.' The middle pickup gets in the way, I don’t like the scale, the volume control is right in the way there, the screws on the bridge dig into my palm. But I think it’s like a mid-century piece of modern art.

"When it comes down to it, it’s just the [Gretsch] 6120s that have everything for me. Nothing feels right after a Gretsch. It has to be an archtop, though, with the air moving in and out and you can play with the sound coming out of the amp."

People might not remember that the first signature guitar you had, in the mid '80s, was actually a Guild Bluesbird.

"You’re right. That was so long ago. Gretsch wasn’t coming to the plate; I don’t think they were really making guitars. Guild did come up to the plate and said, 'We’ll make you a guitar.' When Gretsch got wind of it they said, 'Hey, we’ll make you a guitar.' I’ve got a great old Guild acoustic guitar; Guild made great guitars. But yeah, I’ve always been a Gretsch guy fundamentally."

Your own work and the Stray Cats have been heavily bootlegged. There are hundreds of shows out there. Does the bootlegging bother you?

"Ha! Everything you do now is pretty much out there. When it first came out it was a big deal but now - gosh, you know they’re stealing pennies from you - it’s a laugh. It’s nice that people want to listen to you. The people who are getting the bootlegs are probably the serious fans anyway who are buying all of your legitimate releases.

"I must say, we have some really devoted fans. We get people at all of our gigs who’ll travel across the world. It’s such a blessing. I really appreciate that level of support that means I’m able to keep what I’m doing through all my different projects. I’ve been very lucky. People have stuck by me through all the things that I’ve done. I’ve been on a great musical journey."

Summer NAMM 2019: Gretsch has announced three new Brian Setzer signature models.

The G6120T-BSSMK Brian Setzer Signature Nashville Hollow Body ’59 “Smoke” with Bigsby is a recreation of Setzer’s main stage guitar since retiring his famed “Stray Cat” model.

The guitar features a single-cutaway hollow body with an arched laminated maple top, 1959 trestle bracing and oversized F-holes. The maple neck sports a vintage ‘V’ shape with a 9.5"-12” radius ebony fingerboard.

Period-correct details include a ’59 headstock shape and logo, pickguard shape, size, and bracket, volume, tone and switch locations and a “Smoke Orange” semi-gloss lacquer finish.

There’s also two TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity pickups, an Adjusto-Matic bridge with a pinned rosewood base, a Bigsby B6CGH vibrato tailpiece, a Delrin nut and Gotoh locking tuners.

The G6120T-BSNSH Brian Setzer Signature Nashville Hollow Body with Bigsby features an arched maple top with 1959 trestle bracing and oversized F-holes, a maple neck with a 9.5"-12” compound radius ebony fingerboard with 22 medium frets and mother of pearl Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

There’s also two TV Jones Brian Setzer Signature Filter’Tron pickups, period-correct control locations with a three-position pickup toggle switch, a three-position tone switch, master volume control with a treble bleed circuit and individual bridge and neck pickup volume controls, as well as an Adjusto-Matic bridge with a pinned rosewood base, a Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece, a Delrin nut and Gotoh locking tuning machines.

The guitar comes in a Black Lacquer finish with a period-correct gold pickguard shape, size and bracket, white body and neck binding, nickel hardware and seven-come-eleven dice knobs.

The G6120T-HR Brian Setzer Signature Hot Rod Hollow Body with Bigsby boasts an arched maple top with ’59 trestle bracing and oversized F-holes. The maple neck features a 9.5”-12” compound radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium frets and pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

There’s also two TV Jones Brian Setzer Signature Filter’Tron humbuckers, a three-position pickup toggle switch and master volume control with a treble bleed circuit. Additional features include an Adjusto-Matic bridge with a rosewood base, a Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece, a Delrin nut and Gotoh locking tuners.

The guitar is available in Candy Blue Burst, Candy Magenta, Extreme Coolant Green Sparkle and Lime Gold finishes with nickel hardware.

For more information, head to Gretsch Guitars.

Today, we've teamed up with rockabilly icons The Stray Cats to premiere their new song, "Cry Danger."

Following "Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)" and "Rock it Off," "Cry Danger" is the third track the band has released from their upcoming album, 40. You can check it out below.

“This one is really different for us," Setzer told Guitar World about the song "Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers came up with this crazy riff. It’s almost like a backwards ‘Day Tripper.'”

40, the band's first album of new material in 26 years, is set for a May 24 release via Surfdog Records. It was recorded in Nashville and produced by Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, The Brian Setzer Orchestra), with engineering by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Arctic Monkeys).

To preorder the album, step right this way.

For more on The Stray Cats, follow along on Facebook.

The Stray Cats have shared a new song and video, “Rock It Off.” 

The track, which premiered April 25, hails from their upcoming album, 40, out May 24 via Surfdog Records. The behind-the-scenes video captures the band in the Nashville studio where they recorded the album. You can check it out above.

“Rock It Off” follows the release in March of "Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)," the first single from 40. The new album was recorded in Nashville and produced by Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, The Brian Setzer Orchestra), with engineering by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Arctic Monkeys).

You can preorder 40 right here.

Rockabilly swinger Brian Setzer turns 60 today, so we figured it'd be a good time to revisit Reverb.com's three Setzer-themed lesson videos.

In the clips, Joe from Reverb grabs an attractive Gretsch 6120 and breaks down three representative (but not overplayed) Setzer riffs and/or solos:

• "Hillbilly Jazz Meltdown" riff (from 2011's Setzer Goes Instru-MENTAL!)
• "Hot Rod Girl" solo from (from 2001's Ignition!)
• "Ignition!" riff (also from 2001's Ignition!)

Be sure to also check out our guide to 10 essential rockabilly guitar solos and riffs, a list compiled with input from top players including Paul Pigat and TK Smith. Obviously, Setzer figures heavily in that list—even though his vocabulary borrows as much from jazz and blues as it does from rock and rockabilly.

Back in October, legendary rockabilly trio The Stray Cats announced that, in celebration of their 40th anniversary, they would be recording 40, their first new album in 26 years.

Now, the band has premiered the wild, animated music video for the album's first single, "Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)." You can check it out below. 

Set for a May 24 release via Surfdog Records, 40 was recorded in Nashville and produced by Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, The Brian Setzer Orchestra), with engineering by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Arctic Monkeys). You can preorder the album right here.

"I love this video," drummer Slim Jim Phantom said. "It's an animation style that combines the best elements of vintage and contemporary into a rockin' joy ride through our song."

“I love our new single and video for 'Cat Fight,'" added bassist Lee Rocker. "I’m married to a hot brunette with a temper so I get it! Bouncy walking boogie bass, twangy tough guitar and slamming drums. The Stray Cats are back!”

For more info on the band, head on over to straycats.com.

Having already announced a tour with the reformed Stray Cats, Brian Setzer has made his 2019 schedule even busier, announcing a "Rockabilly Riot" American tour.

Slated to take place in August, the Rockabilly Riot tour will feature Noah Levy on drums, Kevin McKendree on piano, Mark Winchester on bass and, of course, Setzer on guitar.

"When you look up rockabilly in the dictionary there is a picture of Mark Winchester," Setzer said in a press release. "He grew up slapping the bass and is in a class of his own. The relationship with the drummer and the bass player in rockabilly is very unique. The slap bass is a rhythmic sounding instrument, so the drummer has to be very in time with him in order not to sound sloppy. Noah Levy is a very on-the-beat solid drummer, whereas me, as a guitar player, I push everything while they hold it all in place. And when you're talking about the great rockabilly piano players, it's a very short list, and Kevin McKendree is on it. And he also plays guitar incredibly well. We all just complement each other."

You can check out Setzer's full Rockabilly Riot itinerary below.

For tickets and more info, head on over to briansetzer.com.

Brian Setzer 2019 Tour Dates:

MON 8/5 Lancaster, PA American Music Theatre

FRI 8/9 Union, ME Savage Oakes Vineyard & Winery

SAT 8/10 Westhampton, NY Westhampton Beach PAC

SUN 8/11 Selbyville, DE The Freeman Stage @ Bayside

SAT 8/17 Bayfield, WI Lake Superior Big Top Concert Series

TUE 8/20 St. Louis, MO River City Casino

WED 8/21 Memphis, TN Graceland Soundstage

THU 8/22 Tulsa, OK Hard Rock

SAT 8/24 Albuquerque, NM Isleta Resort & Casino Ballroom

SUN 8/25 Boulder, CO Chautauqua Auditorium

FRI 8/30 Henderson, NV Green Valley Ranch

A couple years back, (during the 2017 Winter NAMM Show), I walked out of the Observatory—a concert venue in Santa Ana, California—and took an Uber to my hotel in Anaheim. As soon as we left the curb, the driver—a young guitar-playing greaser with plenty of tattoos—asked me about the show I'd just seen.

"It was rockabilly," I said. "Jeff Beck and Darrel Higham played a bunch of Gene Vincent songs at a Gretsch Guitars event. Cousin Harley and Duane Eddy played too."

"Oh, cool," the driver said. "I love rockabilly."

I figured he'd say that—based on his greased-back hair and Sailor Jerry ink—despite that very wise saying about not judging a book by its cover.

But when I asked him what rockabilly bands he listened to, it was ASAP obvious that he really didn't know what rockabilly was—even though he had adopted "the look," a common practice in Orange County. He mentioned Johnny Cash at one point, but as soon as he listed some baseball-cap-wearing modern country dudes, I cut him off and filled the rest of our trip with a verbal version of what you're about to read.

Simply put, it's a guide to rockabilly guitar; to be more precise, it's a list of 10 killer vintage rockabilly songs that every rock fan—let alone every guitarist—should know and/or learn how to play. These are the songs modern players like Darrel Higham, TK Smith, Paul Pigat, Jim Heath (Reverend Horton Heat), JD McPherson, Buzz Campbell, Brian Setzer and Australia's Firebird Trio listened to back in the day—as did Jimmy Page, George Harrison, Dave Edmunds and Jeff Beck.

Nothing has changed; listening to these songs now—and learning the solos note for note—is just as helpful as it was back when Setzer's pompadour was a foot tall.

Rockabilly is a form of rock that dates to the mid-Fifties. Wikipedia hits the nail on the head here: "It blends Western musical styles such as country with rhythm and blues; some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll." I've always described it as horn-free (I will not waver on that), hard-driving early rock with a rural accent, delivered with a beat so heavy and deep that you think your head's gonna explode.

If you need a detailed history lesson, head here. If not, let's get to the tunes.

Two comrades—TK Smith and Paul Pigat—graciously added their two cents (more like $5.67!) to this list. Smith, a master guitarist (think Charlie Christian in a cowboy hat) and respected guitar builder (he's the man behind the Smith Special), was a fleet-fingered founding member of rockabilly bigwigs Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Trio in the Nineties. Pigat, the Gretsch Guitars-endorsing gent behind Canada's Cousin Harley, is simply one of the top two rockabilly players within a 134.6666667-mile radius of wherever he might be standing, not to mention a mean country blueser and bebop jazzer. This list was compiled by Smith, Pigat and me. Enjoy!

You can find all these songs in a Spotify playlist. Click here to hear it.

RACE WITH THE DEVIL
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps (1956)
Guitarist: Cliff Gallup

"This says all there needs to be said about the Cliff Gallup style, which has influenced everyone, whether they know it or not," Pigat says. Gallup—who was 26 when he joined up with Vincent, one of rock's great early heroes—was one of the mostadept, versatile and influential electric guitarists of his generation. You can find two Guitar World lessons dedicated to Gallup's ahead-of-his-time skills here and here. We've also supplied a handy little "Race with the Devil" lesson below.

LONESOME TRAIN (ON A LONESOME TRACK)
The Johnny Burnette Trio (1957)
Guitarist: Grady Martin

"To me this is a perfect guitar solo—great guitar tone, too," Smith says. "I spent a good part of the Eighties chasing this tone. At that time, I was under the impression it was done with a Fender bridge pickup. I tried dozens of amps back then with my Tele with no luck. It wasn’t until later that I found out it was Grady Martin with a Bigsby pickup." For more about Martin (who also plays on Marty Robbins' "El Paso"), head here.

DUCKTAIL
Joe Clay (1956)
Guitarist: Hal Harris

"I still remember hearing this for the first time," Smith says. "Hal Harris' use of the dominant 7th in the bass while he Travis picks, to me, is the quintessential rockabilly sound." Be sure to read up on Harris right here.

CRAZY LEGS
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps (1957)
Guitarist: Cliff Gallup

"This is a great song to learn note for note," Smith says. "I still use some of these licks today." For this one, we've included the original version and a recent performance by Jeff Beck and Darrel Higham. By the way, "Crazy Legs" was written by guitarist/singer/actor Jerry Reed of Smokey and the Bandit fame.

I'M COMING HOME
Johnny Horton (1957)
Guitarist: Grady Martin

"Anything by Grady Martin is essential to a well-rounded rockabilly guitar player's arsenal," Pigat says. "He's truly a cornerstone of guitar history." For your viewing pleasure, we've included a 2016 live performance of the tune by the Subway Cowboys.

HOW COME IT
"Thumper" Jones (1956)
Guitarist: Hal Harris

"Somewhat crude—but great feeling on this one," Smith says. Thumper's voice might sound familiar to country music fans; he is, in fact, a very young George Jones. "How Come It" appeared as the B-side of "Rock It" in the spring of 1956.

MYSTERY TRAIN
Elvis Presley (1955)
Guitarist: Scotty Moore

"I think all young players should lock themselves in their rooms until they can cleanly play Scotty Moore’s lick on this tune," Smith says. "Learn it slow at first and get it right. I hear a lot of people play it sloppy." To help you get started, we've included a live performance by Moore and Eric Clapton, plus the internet's most popular "Mystery Train" lesson video (If you don't dig this lesson, there are plenty more to choose from on YouTube; some even have tab).

SUN MEDLEY
Danny Gatton (1992/1993)
Guitarist: Danny Gatton

Although this list is supposed to be an homage to rockabilly guitarists from the Fifties, this Danny Gatton track from the early Nineties accomplishes the same goal. It finds Gatton blazing through a medley of songs originally recorded by Elvis Presley and Scotty Moore in the Fifties—the songs he listened to as a kid.

For this list, "it's a tie between Gatton's 'Sun Medley' and the original recordings of the same tunes by Elvis and Scotty," Pigat says. "It's undeniable that Scotty Moore changed the world with his playing. It's also undeniable that Danny Gatton did the same." Below, you can check out live and studio versions of the song.

BE-BOP-A-LULA
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps (1956)
Guitarist: Cliff Gallup

What's this? A third song by Vincent and Gallup? Yes! I have a personal connection to this song; it represents my introduction to rockabilly—although I admit I knew John Lennon's mid-Seventies version before I knew Gene Vincent's version. Simply put, if you can play this solo correctly (and nail the tone), you're officially "playing rockabilly." It's a fine introduction to Gallup and to the genre—and it always makes me happy when I play it.

We've included an interesting live version by Tom Jones and Nigel Tufnel—I mean Jeff Beck! Please try your best to ignore the horns, which simply do not belong there. Don't get me started on horns...

TWENTY FLIGHT ROCK
Eddie Cochran (1957)
Guitarist: Eddie Cochran

Leaving Eddie Cochran off this list would be like leaving Doc Watson off a list of influential bluegrass pickers; his music and look had a huge influence on scores of later musicians, including Brian Setzer and Paul McCartney. His "Twenty Flight Rock" guitar solo, a lovable mish-mash of frantic hammer-ons and pull-offs, captures the frenzy of rockabilly. For the lesson video, we've included a guide to Setzer's juiced-up version of the song, which leads us into a different era—and to our bonus 11th song...

STRAY CAT STRUT
Stray Cats (1981)
Guitarist: Brian Setzer

When I joined a swing/jump-blues band in 2009, I discovered—based on all the jazzy new chord progressions I was learning (many of which bore a strong resemblance to this song)—that "Stray Cat Strut" isn't rockabilly at all. Pigat agrees: "Although not technically a rockabilly tune—it's probably closer to a swing—this tune single-handedly resurrected the genre in the Eighties. There were other great artists at the time [Don't forget Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"], but no single song did as much for the music as this one, and it's a hell of a guitar solo."

In 2014, Setzer actually included it on his own list of "The 5 Best Guitar Solos Ever!" on esquire.com. "This might sound bigheaded of me," Setzer says in the article. "I thought that up when I was 19 years old. And people still come up to me who play guitar and ask me how I play it. It's lasted a long time."

You can find all these songs in a Spotify playlist. Click here to hear it.

A FINAL NOTE: Please remember this list isn't meant to be complete; that would be impossible, not to mention pointless. Regardless, I hope you get some use out of it.

Actually, let me leave you with two more clips. First, there's "Crazy Eyes Baby" by Australia's Firebird Trio. It's an example of how fun, exciting and brain-melting modern rockabilly and hillbilly blues can be in the right hands. Below that, check out Buzz Campbell & Hot Rod Lincoln playing "Slow Down" at the 2010 Winter NAMM Show. Nice solo (and great tone)!

The Brian Setzer Orchestra has announced the release of the concert film Christmas Rocks! Live, on Blu-Ray on November 9.

The 18-song film was captures guitarist and singer Brian Setzer and his 19-piece orchestra onstage at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, performing holiday classics like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Jingle Bells" and "Here Comes Santa Claus," as well as Some of Setzer’s biggest hits with the Stray Cats, including "Stray Cat Strut" and "Rock This Town."

Check out the cover art and track list for Christmas Rocks! Live below. The film can be pre-ordered here.

Christmas Rocks! Live track list:

"Pennsylvania 6-5000"

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"

"Hoodoo Voodoo Doll"

"Stray Cat Strut"

"Boogie Woogie Santa Claus"

"Gene & Eddie"

"Angels We Have Heard On High"

"Jump Jive An' Wail"

"Here Comes Santa Claus"

"Wichita Lineman"

"Runnin' Down A Dream"

"The Christmas Song"

"Rockabilly Boogie"

"Rocket In My Pocket"

"Fishnet Stockings"

"Rock This Town"

"Nutcracker Suite"

"Jingle Bells"

The Brian Setzer Orchestra will also embark on their 15 th anniversary "Christmas Rocks! Tour beginning November 16 in Minneapolis. All dates are below:

11/16              Minneapolis, MN        State Theatre

11/17              Milwaukee, WI            Riverside Theater

11/18              Detroit, MI                  Fox Theatre

11/20              Cincinnati, OH             Taft Theatre

11/21              Northfield, OH             Hard Rock Live

11/23              Mashantucket, CT       Foxwoods Resort Casino

11/24              Philadelphia, PA          Academy of Music

11/25              Red Bank, NJ               Count Basie Theatre

11/27              Westbury, NY              NYCB Theatre at Westbury

11/28              Englewood, NJ             Bergen PAC

11/30              Washington, DC          The Anthem

12/1                Charlotte, NC              Ovens Auditorium

12/2                Nashville, TN               Ryman Auditorium

12/5                Clearwater, FL             Ruth Eckerd Hall

12/7                Orlando, FL                 Hard Rock Live

12/8                Birmingham, AL          BJCC Concert Hall

12/10              Grand Prairie, TX         Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie

12/12              Houston, TX                Jones Hall

12/13              Midland, TX                 Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center

12/15              Phoenix, AZ                 Celebrity Theatre

12/17              Denver, CO                  Paramount Theatre

12/18              Salt Lake City, UT        Eccles Theater

12/20              Modesto, CA               Gallo Center for the Arts

12/21              Indio, CA                      Fantasy Springs Resort Casino

12/22              Los Angeles, CA           Microsoft Theater

The Stray Cats, featuring original members Brian Setzer (guitar and vocals), Lee Rocker (bass) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums), will mark their 40th anniversary in 2019 with a new album and tour.

The record, which the band will be recording in Nashville, will be produced by Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, The Brian Setzer Orchestra) and engineered by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Arctic Monkeys). The still-untitled set will be released on Surfdog Records.

Said Setzer: "Forty years ago, us three teenagers started a little band to play a musical style that had long since passed, and most folks had never heard of, this Rockabilly music. Forty years later we stand together and still get that same thrill and exhilaration from the music. That feeling is what makes the fireworks go off and the sparks fly. It makes the world go around."

Added Phantom: "Making a new Stray Cats album for 2019 in Nashville seems like the exact right thing, right time, right place, and right band for the gig! We have an album's worth of new songs that are classic rockabilly while keeping the music and style current and fresh, like always. In other words...a Stray Cats album." 

"They say history repeats itself and I now know that's true,” commented Rocker. “Forty years after Brian, Jim and I formed the Stray Cats, we are back! I'm so excited to be in the studio with my brothers. I can tell you that this will be the best Stray Cats album we have ever made. The time is right, the songs are great and we're ready to rock." 

If you're a big fan of the Kardashians, American Idol and Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" ("I'm in love with your body..."), you probably would've had a lousy time at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend 21.

The annual event, which took over the Orleans Hotel & Casino on Sin City's West Tropicana Avenue this past weekend, is pretty much a celebration of everything the mainstream is not. After all, the biggest draws at the popular event are pre-1964 hot rods, authentic Fifties clothing, burlesque shows, Sailor Jerry-style tattoos, a jiving contest and, of course, a slew of rockabilly, throwback and straight-up, slicked-back rock and roll bands.

And while first-generation rockers Jerry Lee Lewis and Duane Eddy were near the top of the bill this year, the truly big news was the much-ballyhooed return of modern rockabilly legends the Stray Cats, who performed Saturday night in front of a massive outdoor crowd. It was the iconic U.S. band's first North American appearance in 10 years.

Above, you can watch fan-filmed footage of the rockabilly masters—Brian Setzer (vocals, guitar), Lee Rocker (bass) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums)—performing "Runaway Boys," their 38-year-old debut single and one of the records that helped kick off the rockabilly revival of the early Eighties (which some say is still going strong). Below, you can watch them perform 1982's "Built for Speed" from a bit later in the set (Note: Please excuse the low-quality video and almost complete lack of bass; if you find a better version of either performance on YouTube, let us know in the comments below).

If you'd prefer to head straight to Setzer's impressive guitar solos, both of which he played on his signature Gretsch 6120 models, skip to 1:29 ("Runaway Boys," above) and :48 ("Built for Speed," below). Stray Cats have two more shows scheduled for 2018; you can catch them July 4 at Ribfest in Naperville, Illinois, and August 17 at the OC Fair in Costa Mesa, California (with the Paladins).

For more about Stay Cats, head here. For more about Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend (Hey, it's never too early to start planning for next year!), check out vivalasvegas.net and follow the event on Instagram.

GW homepage photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Here’s a cool video we just discovered. A couple years back, Brian Setzer visited Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville and jammed out a sweet version of the standard “Sweet Lorraine” on this 1941 Gibson L-5.

According to the Carter Vintage Guitars site, this L-5 was formerly owned by legendary Nashville musician Hank Garland and more recently by producer/guitarist Steve Buckingham: “Garland performed with Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Moon Mullican, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, Patti Page and many others.

Beyond the great history of this instrument, it's a fine example of a Forties L-5. In 1948 the guitar had a DeArmond pickup installed by Gibson.

What else can we say? Enjoy.

When Brian Setzer recorded “Rock This Town,” he plugged his 1959 Gretsch 6120 directly into Eden Studios’ SSL 4000E console—a technique favored by producer Dave Edmunds, who recorded his own guitar parts for Rockpile’s Seconds of Pleasure album at Eden using the same method just a few months before. The SSL console’s preamps, EQ and compressors helped generate amp-like warmth and body while retaining crystalline clarity, and a touch of vintage ambience came courtesy of a tape echo unit patched into the board.

Since few of us have a fully loaded vintage SSL 4000E at our disposal, for this month’s entry I’m going to make an exception and describe Brian Setzer’s live rig during 1981 at the beginning of the Stray Cats’ rise to fame.

Fortunately, Setzer’s main rig has remained pretty much consistent since then: a 1959 Gretsch 6120 with PAF Filter’tron humbuckers, 1963 Fender Bassman head with matching Fender 2x12 cabinet and an echo/delay unit—initially a Boss DM-2 Analog Delay (or an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man in a few instances) before Setzer adopted his mainstay Roland RE-301 Space Echo in the early Eighties.

The key to Setzer’s tone is pushing the Bassman’s volume up to the limits of its clean headroom where just a slight amount of overdrive emerges. This provides just the right balance of thick, full-bodied tone and the Gretsch’s characteristic jangle and twang. In the early days when he was using analog delay pedals, Setzer plugged into the Bassman’s Bass channel as its higher output gain paired better with pedals, but when he got the RE-301 he switched to the Normal channel as the RE-301’s built-in preamp provided the desirable gain he prefers up front while allowing the amp to maintain a cleaner overall tone. Setzer usually sets his delay to a fast slapback setting (between 60 to 120 milliseconds) with a single repeat. Use up to three repeats if you want more of a reverb-like effect.

ORIGINAL GEAR

● GUITAR: 1959 Gretsch 6120 (both pickups), master tone switch: middle setting (neutral), master, neck and bridge volume controls all at 10 ● AMP: 1963 Fender Bassman head with 6G6-B circuit (Bass channel, Volume: 4.5, Treble: 8, Bass: 5, Presence: 10) ● CABINET: 1963 Fender Bassman 2x12 with Oxford 12L6 12-inch speakers (later changed to Celestion V30s) ● EFFECTS: Boss DM-2 Analog Delay (Repeat Rate/delay time: 4, Echo/mix: 5, Intensity/feedback: 0) ● STRINGS/TUNING: Dean Markley Nickel Steel Regular .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046/Standard ● PICK: Fender Medium

GET THE SOUND, CHEAP!

● Gretsch G2420T Streamliner ● TV Jones Brian Setzer Signature pickups ● Fender Blues Junior Lacquered Tweed 1x12 combo ● Boss DM-2W Delay Waza Craft

TONE TIP: The TV Jones Brian Setzer Signature pickups are a key element in reproducing Setzer’s signature crisp treble and growling low midrange punch. If you can afford to spend a few more bucks and want to get even closer to Setzer’s tone, Tavo Vega (thenocturnebrain.com) offers a wide variety of pedals and amps inspired by the man himself.

Rockabilly great Brian Setzer has announced a summer American tour. The trek—dubbed the Rockabilly Riot! tour—will take Setzer across the country in June.

Throughout the tour, Setzer will play solo material and Stray Cats classics. Though the Stray Cats are set to reunite for their first North American performance in a decade this April, bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom (the other two Stray Cats) will not be joining Setzer on this tour.

The trek is set to begin June 1 with a show at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California, and will hit Sacramento, Napa, Austin, Tulsa, Atlanta, Charleston and Atlantic City, among other markets, before wrapping up June 24 in Lowell, Massachusetts. You can check out the full itinerary below.

For the tour, Setzer will be joined by Noah Levy on drums, Kevin McKendree on piano/guitar and Mark Winchester on bass.

"When you look up rockabilly in the dictionary there is a picture of Mark Winchester," Setzer said in a press release. "He grew up slapping the bass and is in a class of his own. The relationship with the drummer and the bass player in rockabilly is very unique. The slap bass is a rhythmic sounding instrument, so the drummer has to be very in time with him in order not to sound sloppy. Noah Levy is a very on-the-beat solid drummer, whereas me, as a guitar player, I push everything while they hold it all in place. And when you're talking about the great rockabilly piano players, it's a very short list, and Kevin McKendree is on it. And he also plays guitar incredibly well. We all just complement each other."

For tickets and more info, stop by briansetzer.com.

Brian Setzer Rockabilly Riot! Tour Dates

Fri 6/1: Santa Ynez, CA—Chumash Casino

Sat 6/2: Pala, CA—Pala Casino/Starlight Theater

Sun 6/3: Sacramento, CA—Crest Theatre

Wed 6/6: Napa, CA—The Uptown Theatre

Fri 6/8: West Wendover, NV—Peppermill Concert Hall

Sat 6/9: Grand Junction, CO—Las Colonias Amphitheater

Tue 6/12: Austin, TX—Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater

Thu 6/14: Tulsa, OK—Paradise Cove Margaritaville

Fri 6/15: Robinsonville, MS—Gold Strike Casino/Millennium Theatre

Sat 6/16: Peachtree City, GA—Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater

Mon 6/18: Charleston, SC—Charleston Music Hall

Tue 6/19: Virginia Beach, VA—Sandler Center For the Performing Arts

Wed 6/20: Charlottesville, VA—The Paramount Theater

Fri 6/22: Atlantic City, NJ—Tropicana Showroom

Sun 6/24: Lowell, MA—Lowell Summer Music Series Outdoors

Stray Cats have announced that they'll be reuniting and performing at this year's Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in April. Although we freely admit we were expecting a full 2018 U.S. tour, we'll take what we can get; after all, the April 21 show will mark the band's first North American appearance in 10 years.

The band—guitarist Brian Setzer, bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom—will share the bill with rock and roll legends Duane Eddy and Jerry Lee Lewis, not to mention Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, Carl Mann, Narvel Felts and another 100 or so bands, all of whom will perform throughout the four-day soiree.

The annual event also features burlesque shows, a massive car show (all pre-1964), a vintage fashion show, a pin-up contest and jiving lessons (not to mention a jiving contest, whatever that is). There'll be more than 120 vendors, pool parties, DJ's and record hops—and a whole lot more. My band actually performed at this event in 2010 or 2011 (it's all a blur at this point, to be honest), and it truly is a fun weekend—a total treat for the ears and eyes. Plus it's in Las Vegas, so if you get tired of hearing rockabilly and roots music, you can just amble down the Strip and gamble away your life savings. Fun!

"There's something magic about a Stray Cats show, [and] Viva Las Vegas is the perfect event to experience that," Setzer says. "C'mon down and rock this town!"

Rocker adds: "Just a string bass, a guitar and a drum—Stray Cats are back to show 'em how it's done. Thirty-nine years after our first gigs, we're back! Can't wait to rock again with my brothers Brian and Slim."

Slim Jim's two cents: "[I'm] happy and thrilled to be hitting the stage with the Cats at Viva Las Vegas. We're the rockabilly kings, back to reclaim our throne!"

For tickets and information, visit vivalasvegas.net. P.S.: We're still holding out for a full U.S. tour announcement!

I decided to grab my rapidly aging black Levi's shirt, my awesome new Levy's guitar strap and my Gibson Music City Jr. with B-Bender and show you three essential rockabilly licks.

Bear in mind, I could've chosen three other "essential" rockabilly licks, but these seemed like nice ones to start with. Hey, there's always next month.

I'm really sorry for the lack of tabs, but, well, there's not really any "shredding" going on here.

So, to elaborate (a bit) on the three licks in the video ...

The first lick is a great way to kick off a rockabilly guitar solo; also, since I probably absorbed it as a result of listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Scuttle Buttin'" for three decades-plus, it can be used in upbeat blues situations and maybe even country (the good kind of country; not the crap they play on country radio).

Although a mere word probably won't help anyone, I always imagine that the lick is just "rolling" off the fretboard. I start things off with the open G string, followed quickly by a hammer-on on the first fret (a G#), followed quickly by an open B and an open E. Even if you stop there and master only that, you're on your way to creating some cool rockabilly style licks.

The second lick: As I say in the clip, it's the perfect way to end the I (one) portion of a rockabilly solo or intro before going into the IV. I've heard Brian Setzer do this a million times with Stray Cats. To hear how he uses it (on a nice, newish high-quality studio recording), check out "Rooster Rock," a track from his often-overlooked 2001 rockabilly masterpiece, Ignition! In fact, I've included the song below (second/middle YouTube clip). The lick occurs within the first four seconds. Seriously, if you want to hear one hell of a guitar album, check out Ignition! It's one of my top 10 "guitar albums" of all time. Maybe top 15, but you get the idea.

The third lick: Some of you might recognize this sort of thing from Gene Vincent's "Be-Bob-A-Lula" (which features the great Cliff Gallup on lead guitar) or, now that I think about it, John Lennon's cool mid-Seventies version of "Be-Bob-A-Lula" (bottom YouTube clip). The first guitar solo, and this very lick, starts at the 54-second mark in the Lennon clip below.

Stay tuned for more videos like this ... although I think I'll use a different guitar in my next video. I feel sorry for the other ones. Enjoy!

Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado. His New York-based band, the Blue Meanies, has toured the world and elsewhere. Fanelli, a former member of Brooklyn jump-blues/swing/rockabilly band the Gas House Gorillas and New York City instrumental surf-rock band Mister Neutron, also composes and records film soundtracks. He writes GuitarWorld.com's The Next Bend column, which is dedicated to B-bender guitars and guitarists. His latest liner notes can be found in Sony/Legacy's Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Complete Epic Recordings Collection. Follow him on Facebook,Twitter and/or Instagram.

Brian Setzer did something truly extraordinary in the early Eighties.

Despite his 1950s-inspired pompadour-on-acid haircut, his uber-retro-at-the-time hollowbody Gretsch 6120 and his slap-back-delay-laden guitar sound, he and the Stray Cats morphed their retro-rockabilly roots into something new, fresh, exciting and—best of all—modern.

And this was during the days of skinny ties, rampant synth-rock and A Flock of Seagulls, for chrissakes.

Subsequent generations have enjoyed retro revivals of their own (remember the late-Nineties swing craze and the Squirrel Nut Zippers?)—and some of these acts, including the incredible Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys and Wayne Hancock—are still going strong in 2015.

Whether you're aware of it or not, we're in the middle of a fairly serious retro revival of our own—and it's happening across several genres, including rock, country, jazz and beyond. Maybe the "real country music vs. ridiculous, laughable Nashville country music" phenomenon gets all the ink these days, but let us not forget a rising force in rock named JD McPherson.

Below, meet five current artists who are turning their vintage influences into something new and unique. All of them have released new studio albums in 2015. And remember this is just the tip of the iceberg (Be sure to also check out Austin's Dale Watson and Australia's Pat Capocci).

Some people have a name for this music: Ameripolitan. They also insist we're smack-dab in the middle of an Ameripolitan revolution. And I agree. Read on!

JD McPherson
2015 ALBUM:Let the Good Times Roll
INFO:jdmcpherson.com

Let the Good Times Roll is McPherson's second album, the followup to 2010's Signs & Signifiers (re-released on Rounder in 2012), which put the Oklahoma singer-songwriter-guitarist on the "rock ’n’ roll revivalist" map.

In 2015, that map has led him to several high-profile gigs, including Letterman and Conan.

At the core of this sudden McPhenomenon is an incredibly tight and gifted band that's anchored by former Four Charms bassist (and Hi-Style Records owner) Jimmy Sutton and drummer Jason Smay, who all you teenie-boppers might remember from his days with Los Straitjackets.

Let the Good Times Roll definitely lets the good times—and the hooks, thumping bass lines and greasy guitar riffs—roll into the deepest, darkest corners of your grey matter, from which they are unlikely to be dislodged. So, um, don't bother trying.

As the LA Times put it, the album delivers 11 songs that "split the difference among Buddy Holly, early Stones, the Black Keys and Bo Diddley." The Black Keys reference is no surprise, since Keys frontman Dan Auerbach co-wrote one of the album's standout tracks, "Bridgebuilder," with McPherson.

"I found 1950s rock at just the right time in my life," McPherson recently told Adam Perlmutter. "It was energetic and fun music for teenagers, but it also had great finesse and musicality. At the same time, it was raw and primal, with the immediacy of the punk rock that I was really into."

Charlie Thompson
2015 ALBUM:The Foothill Sessions
INFO:charlie-thompson.com

In the intro to this story, I wrote that these five artists are turning their vintage influences into something new. Well, in the case of U.K.-based singer-guitarist Charlie Thompson, that does not apply—at all.

In fact, Thompson's whole approach involves a charming focus on "old," as you'll hear when you press the "Play" button below and check out his look, graphics and album covers.

Thompson's fairly hard-to-find new album is meant to look and sound as authentically vintage as possible, and he nails it—just as Scotland's the Kaisers nailed the whole fake-British-Invasion-band thing in the Nineties.

The album, a mix of Western swing, rollicking country tunes and a touch of rockabilly, features the guitar work of the uber-talented TK Smith, who was a member of Big Sandy and the Fly Rite Trio in the early Nineties. For fans of Smith, this album is a real (and rare) treat.

Other players include Jeremy Wakefield on pedal steel guitar, Wally Hersom on bass, Bobby Furgo on fiddle, Dave Stuckey on drums and Carl Sonny Leyland on piano.

The Foothill Sessions is not available digitally (not yet, anyway), but it's totally worth tracking down. It also will be available on vinyl soon.

The Bellfuries
2015 ALBUM:Workingman's Bellfuries
INFO:thebellfuries.com

"Loving Arms," the opening track from Workingman's Bellfuries (check it out below), starts off like a super-catchy slice of modern, melodic pop—until the glorious 16-second mark. That's when the guitars, stand-up bass and drums enter the sonic picture, and the song gets even catchier.

That's also the moment when everything falls into place, and you realize you're hearing a truly modern, original take on rockabilly. Let's call it rockabilly pop.

The Bellfuries released an undisputed modern-rockabilly masterpiece, Just Plain Lonesome, in 2001. A few years later, they followed it up with Palmyra, a full-on folk-ish rock/pop album that had rockabilly fans scratching their Layrite-coated heads.

This time around, the Bellfuries have steered the ship at least partially back toward roots-rock territory, turning in another winner. Perhaps Static put it best, calling it "contemporary rock-n-roll that’s the cat’s pajamas."

"We’re a rock and roll band," says Joey Simeone, the Texas-based band's vocalist and chief songwriter. "People are obsessed with categories, sub-genres. We check into a hotel, and the guy or girl behind the desk asks what kind of music we play. ‘Rock and roll.’ Then they ask what I mean by that. Well…

"Let’s see. There’s elements of country music, rhythm and blues. There’s some improvisation on stage that I guess you could say is jazz-inspired. Throw in some gospel…plenty of melodies coming out of older pop tunes. That adds up to rock and roll, last time I checked. If we’re not re-inventing the wheel, I’d rather get to work than worry about renaming it.”

There's an undeniable Beatles influence on Workingman's Bellfuries, which is underscored by a rocking new cover of Lennon/McCartney's "She's a Woman." In fact, "Loving Arms" seems—lyrically, at least—to be based on Arthur Alexander's "Soldier of Love," which the Beatles recorded for the BBC in the early Sixties.

Note that Workingman's Bellfuries is another Jimmy Sutton/Hi-Style Records production.

Whitey Morgan and the 78's
2015 ALBUM:Sonic Ranch
INFO:whiteymorgan.com

Chances are, if you're not a fan of modern country music—which Tom Petty recently called “bad rock with a fiddle”—you'd absolutely love Whitey Morgan and the 78's.

Morgan, a big, bearded native of Flint, Michigan, has about as much to do with the mainstream Nashville country music scene as Kim Jong-un.

His brand of country music full of gnarly Telecasters, dark-and-eerie pedal steel guitars and songs about drinkin', lyin', cheating—you know, broken lives and broken hearts.

On Sonic Ranch, Morgan practically bleeds into each song, resulting in a rough-and-tumble honky-tonk noir song collection. Recorded at Sonic Ranch in Texas with producer Ryan Hewitt, the album's fighting spirit reflects Morgan's childhood.

"I got my ass kicked on a daily basis and fought like hell each and every time. A growth spurt eventually put a stop to all of that." Morgan witnessed the toll the city's troubled economy had on the people closest to him and informs his musical stylings. "Growing up in Flint ignited the 'never give up' attitude I apply to every part of my life. That's what you learn when you grow up in that town. You also learn that you don't take shit from anyone, ever."

Perhaps it's what made Morgan partial to the outlaw arm of country music.

I saw these guys live when they passed through New York City in the spring. Although the guitar is very much alive and well on Sonic Ranch, every six-string player in the band, including Morgan, truly unleashes the fireworks when things get cooking onstage. And pedal steel guitarist Brett Robinson simply ... kicks ... ass.

Pokey LaFarge
2015 ALBUM:Something in the Water
INFO:pokeylafarge.net

If I were a guest on some bizarre game show and was forced to describe Pokey LaFarge's music in five seconds or less, I'd call him a "21st century Squirrel Nut Zippers."

Thankfully, no such demented game show exists—because that description does absolutely no justice to LaFarge, a St. Louis-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is happily unaffected by the music of the past seven or eight decades.

Something in the Water is a mesmerizing trip through American roots music, with an emphasis on ragtime, jazz, swing and country blues. Produced by Jimmy Sutton (yep, the same Jimmy Sutton who plays bass with JD McPherson and produces the Bellfuries), the album features a diverse cast of players, including members of NRBQ, the Fat Babies, the Modern Sounds and the Western Elstons.

Standout tunes include the title track (be sure to check out the music video below), “Wanna Be Your Man,” “Underground,” “Cairo, Illinois” and “Barcelona.”

“The Midwest is at the heart of this record," LaFarge says. "The people playing on these songs are from Wisconsin and Illinois and Chicago and St. Louis, and there’s a certain attitude that comes across in the songs and the way that they’re performed. I’m born and raised in the Midwest, and my family’s been here for generations. This is where I’m from and how I think, and that’s reflected in the music I make.”

Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado. His New York-based band, the Blue Meanies, has toured the world and elsewhere. Fanelli, a former member of Brooklyn jump-blues/swing/rockabilly band the Gas House Gorillas and New York City instrumental surf-rock band Mister Neutron, also composes and records film soundtracks. He writes GuitarWorld.com's The Next Bend column, which is dedicated to B-bender guitars and guitarists. His latest liner notes can be found in Sony/Legacy's Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Complete Epic Recordings Collection. Follow him on Facebook,Twitter and/or Instagram.

Brian Setzer has announced Rockin' Rudolph, his first Christmas studio album in 10 years.

Fans can pre-order a limited edition, numbered deluxe package of the album—which is set for an October 16 release via Surfdog Records—right here.

You also can watch a preview of the album's title track below.

"It's been about 10 years since I made a Christmas record," Setzer said.

"[Christmas music] just seems to get more popular every year. They're classic songs and you wonder after a couple records how many of them are left. Once you dig in you find, wow! I've haven't done 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree,' you know. I've never done 'Here Comes Santa Claus!'"

Setzer and the Brian Setzer Orchestra are also set to embark on their 12th Annual Christmas Rocks! Tour, the dates of which will be announced in August.

The Brian Setzer Orchestra Rockin' Rudolph from Surfdog Records on Vimeo.

Brian Setzer is one of the most famous Gretsch players of all time. The former Stray Cat guitarist has, as of last count, no fewer than one dozen Gretsch signature guitars, 10 of which are based on the celebrated 6120.

In this lengthy and informative video, Setzer presents a detailed look at his guitar collection, which includes loads of Gretsches as well as a D’Angelico Excel cutaway, a Gibson ES-175 with a Bigsby, 1956 Martin D-28 and numerous others.

He starts things off by showing the 1959 Gretsch 6120 he bought for $100 when he was 17, treating us to some tasty rockabilly licks with a generous dollop of Roland Space Echo delay. As with the other guitars presented in the video, Setzer tells the story of how he bought the instrument and the condition it was in.

“I wanted to look like Eddie Cochran, and there was [a Gretsch 6120] in my local paper,” he says. “It said, ‘Gretsch guitar, orange, 100 dollars.’ ”

Setzer went to check out the guitar, only to find the electronics had been gutted. “The guitar was on one side and all of the electrics were in a shoebox,” he says. “So I gave him one hundred dollars, and I took the shoebox and brought it to someone, and he put it back together for me.”

In addition to showing the guitars and talking about them, Setzer demonstrates the tones of each one with some soloing and strumming, including an impromptu rendition of the theme from Gunsmoke!

Enjoy.

He revitalized rockabilly with the Stray Cats and revived swing and jump blues with the Brian Setzer Orchestra. But what Guitar World readers really want to know is …

Your playing style is so incredible and immaculate. Did you start with any jazz guitar training or did you just learn how to play “Stairway to Heaven” like the rest of us? — Jon Rubin

[laughs] I’m not saying I didn’t play it. Hell, we all played it; it’s a classic. But I did take guitar lessons for about 10 to 12 years, with two different teachers.

I took my first lesson when I was eight years old. I went through the Mel Bay books. Back then in Long Island, New York, there were mostly jazz players.

So my first teacher was actually a saxophone player. After that I studied with this other jazz teacher, Ray Gogarty. He took me further into the jazz world: advanced chords, a little bit of the modes, scales and standards.

I seem to remember reading that one of the cars on Stray Cats’ Built for Speed album cover was yours. Is that true? — Eric Smoot

Yeah, the ’56 Chevy on the cover of Built for Speed was mine. That Chevy actually got stolen from a parking spot years ago. I wish I still had it. I came back from doing what I was doing, and the car was gone. It broke my heart.

What first inspired you to play guitar? — Molly McAllister

I was a little kid, like six or seven years old, when the Beatles came out. I remember hearing their music and I couldn’t imagine where that sound was coming from.

Then I saw a picture of the Beatles, and George [Harrison] had an electric guitar, and I was like “That’s it!” It was that sound—the sound of George’s guitar—that first captured me when I was really young. It all goes back to that sound.

What led you down the rockabilly path? — Steve

The real defining moment for me was when I heard [Gene Vincent’s] “Be-Bop-A-Lula” on the jukebox. Back in 1976 or ’77, we had this club in Manhattan called Max’s Kansas City. There was always punk music blasting, but for some reason one day “Be-Bop-A-Lula” came on the jukebox. It was as if a hand came across the bar and grabbed me, like, “Listen to me! Listen to how cool I am!”

There was just something about the raw, back-to-basics sound that fit perfectly with the urgency of the punk movement I was in back then. To me, rockabilly music paralleled punk’s energy and feeling, but the players were much better. I’m telling you, I still remember Cliff Gallop’s solo coming out of the speaker. I went, “What the heck is that? Who’s playing this?”

I really dig your hair. What is your secret ingredient? Are you a Murray’s Pomade man? — Joe Barrios

[In radio-announcer voice] You’ve heard of Dapper Dan? Well, I’m a Murray’s man! [laughs] As my dad used to say, “You’ve got to train your hair.” And then once you’ve got it trained, you comb it in the position, throw in a little bit of Murray’s … and you’ll be a Murray’s man, too. [laughs]

What attracted you to using Gretsch hollowbodies as your main guitars? — Jeff Osgood

The first reason I wanted to play a Gretsch guitar is because Eddie Cochran played one. Believe me, when I was growing up, nobody knew who he was. I just stumbled across this record and I thought he looked cool. I had no idea he was that good.

But once I popped on the record, it was exactly the guitar sound that I wanted: somewhere between a Fender and Gibson. To me, if you play a Fender straight through the amp without any effects, it’s a little thin sounding. And a Les Paul didn’t twang enough; it was just always on 11, you know?

The Gretsch was right between those two. It had that twang, but you could really make it sing if you wanted. I guess it just fulfilled the sound I was hearing in my head.

I know you co-wrote some tracks with [late Clash singer and guitarist] Joe Strummer for your Guitar Slinger album, and I heard that you were friends with him, as well. Can you share any good stories? — Cole Slaugh

Oh, I’ve got a lot of great memories with Joe. Joe and I would spend the summers together because we were good friends and we both had children. So we’d throw the kids in the pool and have a good time. Joe had a very good, dry sense of humor, you know, and some of the things he would say were just…

Well, let’s say he was very good at making fun and making light of a situation. If you were wound up or you were aggravated about something, Joe would say a couple words, and then you would laugh and realize how silly the whole thing was. He was a great guy, and a genius of our time.

Which classic rockabilly artists would you recommend I check out to better understand the style? — Jimmy Vomvas

The definitive rockabilly album for me was Elvis Presley’s The Sun Sessions. Boy, oh boy. That probably has everything you need all wrapped up right there. Also pick up the first two Gene Vincent records: Blue Jean Bop and Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. As a guitar player, you have to hear Cliff Gallup play with Gene Vincent and Scotty Moore play with Elvis Presley.

I love your live sound. But I’d like to know how you control feedback at stage volume. I have had this issue with hollowbody guitars in the past. — Eric A. Nay

I’ve actually never had any problems with the [Gretsch] 6120 with FilterTron pickups. The feedback that I get is kind of friendly feedback. It’s like a note, not a squeal. I love what happens on a hollowbody guitar when you’re too close to an amp. That sound comes back through the guitar and vibrates the body, like an old jalopy or something. That’s the most magical feeling to me. Once you figure it out, you can kind of control all of those feedback notes.

You’ve got an amazing sound. What is your main amp-and-effect setup? — Billy Wilson

I just use a ’63 Fender Bassman and a Roland Space Echo. I mean, my amps have been worked on, but they’re not modified—rather de-modified. Over the years people have put in the wrong tubes, cables and speakers. I try to get the Bassmans back to stock, and I like to use Celestion Vintage 30s for the speakers. I think they’re better matched to the power of the amplifier head.

I’ve always been impressed by your right-hand picking technique. Could you give me any advice on how to refine mine? — Greg Terzian

Well, first of all, anyone that tells you “This is the only right way to do it” is wrong. Any way you feel comfortable fingerpicking…if it works for you, then do it. There’s not a wrong or a right way.

When I fingerpick, I tuck my pick under my index finger; I’ll slip it down when I use the guitar pick, and then I tuck it up, and use my thumb, second, third and fourth fingers to fingerpick. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that, and I don’t know if you could call it correct, but that’s what works for me.

Do you ever get bored playing rockabilly-type stuff? If not, how do you keep your playing fresh within that style? — Justice Edwards

I always mix in new things, new influences. There are so many different styles you can play in that genre. I mean, I’m a rockabilly guitar player, but I’m influenced by all American musical styles, like jazz, blues, country and rock and roll. So the way to keep from getting bored from playing one particular genre of music is to mix in other styles.

Photo: David Bowman

In this new video, created and posted in time for this year's Winter NAMM Show, longtime Gretsch signature artist Brian Setzer plays and discusses Gretsch guitars.

He also describes his love affair with the brand and how guitarists like George Harrison and Eddie Cochran exposed him to Gretsch in his formative years.

For more about Gretsch's Setzer models, visit gretschguitars.com.

Members of the Guitar World crew paid a visit to the Gretsch booth at the 2015 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

As you can see in the new video below, we got the run down on the company's new Gretsch Brian Setzer signature guitars.

For more about Gretsch, visit gretschguitars.com.

For more NAMM 2015 coverage, visit GuitarWorld.com's official NAMM 2015 Zone, get updates on Facebook and photos and more on Twitter and Instagram. It's like you're at the show!

Gretsch is proud to release the entirely new and updated Professional Collection Hollow Body Brian Setzer guitars, each built to Brian’s exacting specs.

Gretsch Brian Setzer Nashville models are modeled on the guitars in his killer vintage collection. The trestle bracing matches that of Setzer’s favorite ’59, giving it a more solid feel and tons of sustain.

Standard features include 1959 trestle bracing, dual TV Jones Brian Setzer "Signature" pickups, Schaller locking tuners and strap locks, pinned Adjusto-Matic bridge, nickel hardware and Bigsby B6CB vibrato tailpiece. Available with a three-ply maple body in Gloss Black Urethane and Vintage Orange Lacquer, or with a five-ply flame maple body in Orange Urethane or Orange Lacquer.

Gretsch Brian Setzer Hot Rod Models are stripped down and now feature a striking assortment of new colors over a flame maple body. The single-cutaway bound hollow body has an arched top, 1959-style trestle bracing and f-holes; the maple neck has a bound ebony fingerboard with Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

Other features include dual Brian Setzer "Signature" TV Jones pickups, three-position pickup switch, single master volume control, Schaller locking tuners, pinned Adjusto-Matic bridge and Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece. The flame maple body is available in Harbor Blue 2-Tone, Highland Green 2-Tone, Roman Red 2-Tone, Tuxedo Black 2-Tone, Tuxedo Black, Blonde and Green Sparkle finishes.

The G6136SLBP Brian Setzer Black Phoenix is designed and built for speed. The single cutaway hollow body has an arched top and back, 1959 trestle bracing and oversized “F” holes; the maple neck has a 9.5”-radius ebony fingerboard with 22 medium frets and Mother-of-Pearl Neo-Classic “Thumbnail” inlays.

Other features include dual TV Jones Brian Setzer "Signature" pickups, three-position pickup switch, jeweled single master volume control, silver-sparkle binding (body, fingerboard and headstock), silver plexi pickguard with Phoenix silhouette graphic, pinned Adjusto-Matic bridge and Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece, Schaller strap locks, Grover Imperial tuners and gloss black nitrocellulose lacquer finish.

For more information, go to gretschguitars.com.

Earlier today, the modern rockabilly king, Brian Setzer, premiered the lyric video for his new song, "Lemme Slide."

The track features prominently on Setzer's new album, Rockabilly Riot! All Original, which was released today, August 12, via Surfdog Records.

You can check out "Lemme Slide" below, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section below or on Facebook!

Check out our new interview with Setzer in this general area. And, while you're at it, watch the official music video for "Let's Shake," another new song from the album, right here.

Earlier today, everyone's favorite rockabilly cat, Brian Setzer, premiered his new music video over at USAToday.com.

Lucky for you, you can check out "Let's Shake" below.

As always, be sure to let us know what you think of it in the comments below or on Facebook!

"Let's Shake" is the lead-off single from Setzer's new album, Rockabilly Riot! All Original, which will be released August 12 via Surfdog Records. You can check out our new interview with Setzer right here.

Following last year’s successful Christmas tour with his 18-piece orchestra, iconic guitarist, songwriter and three-time Grammy winner Brian Setzer entered the studio to get back to his rockabilly roots — with incredible results.

Setzer’s new album, Rockabilly Riot: All Original, which will be released August 12 via Surfdog Records, is pure, straight-ahead rockabilly that features 12 new, original songs. Along with his trademark twang and fretboard fire, Setzer is backed by three musicians who are among the best at their craft — Mark Winchester (bass), Kevin McKendree (piano) and Noah Levy (drums).

The album, which was recorded in Nashville, was produced by Peter Collins, who handled those same duties for Setzer’s Vavoom! and The Dirty Boogie. The result is a cross-mix of early Stray Cats and Setzer’s solo records, with an emphasis on a fresh, modern rockabilly sound.

Setzer first captured the hearts of guitarists everywhere as founder and frontman of Stray Cats, whose signature songs “Rock This Town," “(She's) Sexy & 17” and “Stray Cat Strut” introduced the sound and attitude of rockabilly to a new generation of rock fans in the early Eighties.

I recently spoke to Setzer about Rockabilly Riot: All Original(which is available now for pre-order), his early days, guitars and what the future holds for rockabilly music.

GUITAR WORLD: How would you describe the sound of Rockabilly Riot?

To me, it sounds a little bit like a mixture of an album I had called Ignition and the first Stray Cats album. The production of it is straight forward, but it really is songs first. Then I make them into rockabilly just by me playing them.

What makes rockabilly so special?

It’s based in the blues, which is kind of the basis of it all. Rock and roll, rockabilly, country, swing, jazz — it all started from the blues. Anything that seems to come from something honest works for me. I like to say that rockabilly is like the bad brother who goes out late and doesn’t come back [laughs]. It was probably too risqué for its time and never really gained the traction it should have.

Do you consider this album a sequel of sorts to Ignition, considering both have songs about roosters and chickens?

Well, Mark Winchester [bass] says that any song about barn yard animals is fine by him. I guess it was inspired by Mark’s “Rooster Rock." [laughs]

Speaking of Mark, you’re joined by some amazing players on this album. Can you speak to what it’s like working with Mark, Kevin McKendree and Noah Levy?

It reminds me of watching the All-Star Game in baseball. You know that anything you throw at them, they’re going to catch or going to hit. It’s fun making a record with guys like that, just like it was with Jim and Lee from the Stray Cats or the big band. They’re all top players, so you know you’re going to get a great performance. Once you sit down and play, work on the songs and gel, it all comes together and you’ve got a first-place team.

What was the writing process like for this album?

It’s interesting. When you start writing, you really have to get a spark or something to light the fuse. The first song I wrote for this album was “Vinyl Records,” and the spark was my daughter listening to songs on her iPod. She had the little peas in her ear and I pulled them out and listened and said, “Ah, I really don’t like that. It doesn’t sound good.”

That’s when she said, “Well, that’s just because you don’t like the band.” I said, “No, it’s not about the music.” Then I showed her a stereo I had sitting at home. I pulled out an old record and put it on so she could hear what it sounded like. She flipped, and it was a victory for Dad! Now, she and her friends go out and hunt down vinyl records. That was the spark that really got that song going for me lyrically. Musically, I had this riff lying around that I thought was cool. It was just a blues riff in C but it counts down all of the notes in the blues scale. It was something I hadn’t really heard anybody do yet. Once I had those two things, it just kind of snowballed from there.

The song “Rockabilly Blues” has an autobiographical theme to it. Was that your intention?

Yeah, that’s right. I was just sitting there finger picking a blues/rockabilly thing on a guitar that I’ve had for 40 years. I started thinking about the idea of making it personal and decided to write the song about the guitar and me.

What was the recording process like?

It was a no-stress record. To go in with Peter [Collins] was like going in with a buddy. We recorded it in Nashville, and what I did differently this time was arrange all of the songs together beforehand. We recorded all of the tracks and arranged them and then I gave the guys a CD and had them listen to it and live with it for a month and half. Then right after our Christmas tour, we all went straight into the studio. It was easier and more fun to have everything ready and then just go in and rock it out. There are no overdubs on this album except for the vocal.

What inspired you to first pick up the guitar?

The first real inspiration I had was George Harrison. I remember when I first heard the Beatles on a jukebox. At the time, I was so young I didn’t even really know what was making the sound that I liked. Then there was a record store on the corner with a picture hanging up that said “The Beatles." Once I saw George holding his guitar, I said, “Wow! So cool!” That was the first spark.

Then later on, after it had cemented itself in place, I was really blown away by Eddie Cochran. I remember in the late Seventies no one really knew who he was. But once I saw his record (the black and white Legendary Masters Series), I knew I wanted to look like him. And after I had heard the songs, that just completed it for me. I said, “That’s it! [laughs].

Did the Stray Cats find it difficult finding its niche in those early years?

I remember people used to think, “What the heck are these guys doing?” [laughs]. It’s kind of like Fifties rock and roll, but it’s not. This was the guitar-based, bad-ass cousin of that. But we built it up just like any other band. Whether you were in a blues band or a punk band at the time, everyone had to pay their dues and bang around in the back of a van. There was no instant overnight thing. It was a good learning experience climbing the ropes.

What’s your setup like these days?

I don’t use pedals. I just use the Roland Space Echo and mess around with the settings. If I want more of a “rock” sound, I’ll just turn the volume up. Then when I want the “billy” sound, I’ll turn the volume down to get it a little more twangy and then add a bit more delay on it. That’s really the only thing that I use.

Tell me a little about your guitars.

I have three that play really well. I’ve got the Stray Cat Gretsch, another ’59 that is pretty much my main guitar, and then my friends at TV Jones just found me a wicked one. I think it’s a ‘60 model that really just has the stuff. I’ve also got my new line of Gretsch guitars that I always take with me on the road.

What first attracted you to the Gretsch?

I had always wanted one because of George and Eddie. I just loved their sound and my ear was drawn to that sound rather than to a Les Paul. Back in the Seventies, you couldn’t really find a 6120 because they had stopped making them. But when I did find one and plugged it in, I was smitten. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Can you tell me the origin of the Stray Cats song “Rock This Town”?

We were all tired of the whole disco era and one night, me and Slim Jim [Phantom] snuck into a bar. I remember we looked at the jukebox and saw that it was all still disco and we were both really pissed off about it. I think that was the spark that got it off the ground and helped me to write something that was rock and roll instead of something that was dominating the airwaves.

What do you think the future holds for rockabilly music?

If you follow history, it always seems to stick its head above water, sees what the world is like and then goes back under. It had its spike in the Fifties, then the Stray Cats brought it back, and now you’ve got people like Imelda May who are having success with it. I think rockabilly will always be there because it’s so good and just keeps regenerating itself. Whether it’s in the public eye or not, people will always know it’s there.

'Rockabilly Riot' is available now for pre-order.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Brian Setzer has premiered a new song — "Let's Shake" — from his upcoming all-rockabilly album, Rockabilly Riot: All Original.

The album will be released August 12 via Surfdog Records.

“Yeah, ‘Let’s Shake,’ how come no one has thought of that title yet?" Setzer says. "We’ve been making rock and roll now for 60 years and no one has come up with ‘Let’s Shake?’ And I came up with it and I went, ‘Wow…Let’s Shake!’ You know, oh god, it’s just so simple it’s magic!

"It’s got a really great guitar solo in it, just rock and roll sounding…it’s not really ‘billy’ sounding, it’s more rock and roll… again, it’s the simplest songs that are the hardest to write.”

On the new album, which was recorded in Nashville and produced by Peter Collins, Setzer is backed by Mark Winchester (bass), Kevin McKendree (piano) and Noah Levy (drums).

Brian Setzer will release a new studio album, Rockabilly Riot: All Original — a straight-ahead rockabilly album from start to finish — August 12 via Surfdog Records.

The album is the followup to 2011's Setzer Goes Instru-Mental!

The album, which features Mark Winchester (bass), Kevin McKendree (piano) and Noah Levy (drums), was recorded in Nashville and produced by Peter Collins.

“They seem to know what it should sound like," Setzer says about the crew that worked on the new album. "Peter Collins is experienced and an accomplished producer, he’s done a lot of records, but he loves rockabilly music and he knows what it should sound like.

“I think this album sounds to me a little bit like the first Stray Cats record…it's rockabilly songs. It’s not just blues songs in the rockabilly style. People like to call it ‘neo-billy,’ I suppose, which is some invented word somebody came up with, but if that’s the word they want to use, I’d like to go with that because it sounds to me like it’s very modern and fresh-sounding rockabilly.”

Here's a quick Q&A with Setzer:

Congratulations on the new album. There's something gloriously uncomplicated about rockabilly. It’s both badass and uplifting. How do you describe rockabilly?

Rockabilly music should be up there in regards with blues music. It should be playing in arenas. And, I think, it’s better than the blues because it has a style to it, it has accomplished musicians playing it and it’s totally American. So I think it’s very underrated music that should be more in the forefront of our culture.

Can you talk about the joy you had creating this specific rockabilly album?

You know, when my guitar and my amp and my echo unit are playing perfectly and in tune the way they do there’s no reason to turn it off. I was on the road for two months. I had given the songs I’d written to all the band members and we hadn’t arranged them. So this record was different where we didn’t have to sit down and labor over arrangements, everything was learned, and my guitar sound sounded so good I just made the record. We didn’t need to change guitars, amps, microphones—we just cut a rockabilly record—there’s no overdubs there’s no splicing there’s no auto tuning; what you hear is what you get. It’s pretty much us making live music.

Tell us about the chemistry in the studio between you, producer Peter Collins and the musicians who joined you on the album.

I think the only way you can make a better rockabilly record is if you get Elvis to sing…because Mark Winchester Kevin McKendree and Noah Levy are the best in their craft. Nobody plays a better slap bass than Mark. Kevin McKendree calls himself a “rockabilly piano player,” I’ve never heard anybody say that. And Noah just has a very swampy, groovy feel, which makes the whole thing sound kinda loose. Peter Collins…it’s funny how English people seem to have a more sensibility about what rockabilly music is, even though it was invented in the South…they seem to know what it should sound like. Peter Collins is experienced and an accomplished producer, he’s done a lot of records, but he loves rockabilly music and he knows what it should sound like.

What do you feel ultimately separates this album from your previous ones?

I’ve made a lot of records. I think this album is pretty similar to two albums I’ve cut in the past. It sounds to me a little be like Ignition: Part 2 and also like the first Stray Cats record. It’s rockabilly songs. It’s not just blues songs in the rockabilly style. People like to call it “neo-billy,” I suppose, which is some invented word that somebody came up with, but if that’s the word they want to use, I’d like to go with that because it sounds to me like it’s very modern and fresh-sounding rockabilly.

“Let’s Shake” is a burning up-tempo tune, a perfect setup for the rest of the album and a terrific single. Can you talk about this song’s mojo?

Yeah, “Let’s Shake” — how come no one has thought of that title yet? We’ve been making rock ‘n roll now for 60 years and no one has come up with “Let’s Shake”? And I came up with it and I went, “Wow…Let’s Shake!” You know, oh god, it’s just so simple it’s magic. It’s got a really great guitar solo in it, just rock ‘n roll sounding…it’s not really “billy” sounding it’s more rock and roll. And, you know, there’s a difference. The rockabilly has a more of a slap back hillbilly sound and the rock and roll is more tough. Oh god, it’s got that great, I think it’s from 1928 piano. It’s a Steinway. Again, it’s the simplest songs that are the hardest to write.

Another highlight of the album is “Vinyl Records.” Speaking of which, what are your three favorite vinyl records you own or once owned?

Gene Vincent, Blue Jean Bop; Eddie Cochran, Greatest Hits, and Elvis Presley, The Sun Sessions.

Rockabilly Riot: All Original Track Listing:

01. Let’s Shake
02. Rockabilly Blues
03. Vinyl Records
04. Lemme Slide
05. Nothing Is a Sure Thing
06. What’s Her Name
07. Calamity Jane
08. The Girl With the Blues in Her Eyes
09. Stiletto Cool
10. I Should Have Had a V8
11. Blue Lights Big City
12. Cock-a-Doodle Don’tFor more information about Setzer, visit briansetzer.com and www.facebook.com/briansetzerofficial

Guitarist Drake Bell wasn't made for these times.

The actor/musician, best known for his work as teenage rocker Drake Parker on the Nickelodeon TV show Drake & Josh, actually grew up listening to the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, the Beatles and Stray Cats.

On Bell's new album, Ready Steady Go!, he pays homage to those roots by teaming with one of his biggest musical influences — Brian Setzer — for a tastefully inspired collection of classic rockabilly favorites and new material.

In addition to Bell's catchy original, "Bitchcraft" are his take on songs like "Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)", "Still Rock And Roll To Me (Billy Joel)" and a haunting version of Setzer's own "I Won't Stand In Your Way".

I recently spoke to Bell about Ready Steady Go!, his guitar work and more.

GUITAR WORLD: What made you decided to do a project like this?

This is the music I grew up on. My first guitar was a Gretsch 6120, and I just loved listening to artists like Elvis, Chuck Berry and Stray Cats. But when I wanted to go make records, it was hard. I couldn't really be on the show [Drake & Josh] and then go in and do a three-piece rockabilly-type record of Fifties music.

How did the collaboration with Brian Setzer come about?

I've been a fan of Brian's for such a long time and had the opportunity to go backstage and meet him from time to time. It got to the point to where I started becoming a familiar face backstage. I still remember when I first presented the idea for this album to him. He was confused at first and said, "Wait a minute — you mean you want to make a rockabilly record?" [laughs]. I said "Yeah, this is what I've always wanted to do!"

What was your criteria for choosing songs for ‘Ready Steady Go!’?

It was really about songs I loved playing and singing growing up. What's really cool is that younger audiences seem to think that a lot of these songs are new. It's given me the opportunity to introduce this great music to a new generation without them thinking I'm just trying to play them their grandparents' music. They're embracing it as their own.

What was it like working with Brian?

It's hard to explain the feeling. It was breathtaking. Just to be sitting there playing a song I wrote and having Brian there with his gear in the room playing live with us was unreal.

What's the origin of the song "Bitchcraft"?

I grew up loving and playing this music but had never attempted to write in this style before. I remember I was listening to some old Django [Reinhardt] and Glenn Miller and just jamming around when the lick came to me. I don't think it's about anyone specifically. It's just an amalgamation of the relationships I've been through. But it was my first attempt at writing that jazzy, swing-influenced rockabilly.

Do you have plans to tour?

We're working on a few things outside of the country right now as well as doing some mall dates and children's hospitals here in the U.S. Then we'll be gearing up to tour sometime this summer.

Tell me a little about your musical background.

I started playing music when I was around 10. I always wanted to be in a band, so I started out by playing drums. I played with a few groups but always remember wanting to be performing out in front of the band.

What inspired you to make the switch to guitar?

I had the opportunity to do a movie with Roger Daltrey of the Who. In the movie, I played a guitar student. Since I had to learn how to play somewhat for the movie, I was introduced to the guitar. When I picked up the guitar for the first time, it opened up a whole new world for me. I became obsessed with writing and playing. That's really how it started.

Who were some of your influences?

In addition to Brian, I love George Harrison, Carl Perkins, Brian May, Danny Gatton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. My dad was also a huge influence on me growing up. I remember we would sit in front of the TV and he would show me all of this classic stuff: The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and Elvis on Milton Berle. Then we'd get in the car and would listen to the Beach Boys, Beatles and Buddy Holly. I fell in love with that style of music and culture. It opened up my whole musical world.

What other projects are you working on?

I have a movie coming out for Nickelodeon called A Fairly Odd Summer. It's the third installment of the Fairly Oddparents movies. We've been taking the cartoon and making it live action.

You also do the voice of Peter Parker on the animated Ultimate Spider-Man. What's that like?

It's amazing. I get to go in and work alongside some of the greatest vocal talents of all time. People I grew up listening to. Then to have a legend like Stan Lee come in to do voice overs with us is just unbelievable.

What satisfies you the most about Ready Steady Go!?

Honestly, it’s got to be putting the record on and listening to "I Won't Stand In Your Way" with Brian's guitar up against my vocal. I still remember listening to his original version on vinyl as a kid and just wearing the needle out by playing it over and over.

We recently pressed the new album to vinyl and I just got a test copy. Since I still have the same record player I had when I was 15, I set it down, put the needle on and started listening to "I Won't Stand in Your Way." It was a surreal moment. If you had told me back then that this was going to happen one day, I never would have believed it. Having the opportunity to go to Nashville and make a record with one of my biggest influences is a dream come true.

For more information, visit:

Drake Bell Official Website:drakebell.com
Facebook:facebook.com/bell.drake

Photo Credit: Drake Bell

Ah, how young and innocent we all were when Fender introduced its first signature model — the Eric Clapton Stratocaster — in 1988.

Of course, Chet Atkins' name appeared on several Gretsch models (the Tennessean, for example) long before then, and let's not forget that Les Paul — the name that appears on millions of guitar headstocks across the world — was actually a person.

Today, new signature models seem to be popping up daily, each one "designed according to the artist's specifications." Almost every major manufacturer makes them for a host of artists from every genre of guitar-based music. This, of course, leaves players with a wealth of choices.

Below, however, is a list of 10 high-quality signature-model electric guitars that the respective artists can proudly sign their name to — 10 models that get it right.

As always, this list was compiled by a group of Guitar World editorial staffers including Technical Editor Paul Riario, the guy who tries out every piece of gear that arrives at Guitar World. The gear in this story is presented in no particular order.

EVH Wolfgang USA Stealth

Short of committing an act of grand theft Frankenstrat, the Wolfgang USA Stealth from EVH is the be-all, end-all Van Halen guitar for that moment you decide to try your hand at "Eruption."

Of the guitars on this list, the Wolfgang USA Stealth features, by far, the most responsive Floyd Rose system. (It should be noted that the EVH-branded Floyd Rose isn't a floating setup, so it can only be used for diving.)

As Guitar World reviewer Chris Gill wrote in our April 2012 issue, "Whether you're a metal shredder who wants super-sonic speed and nothing-but-black aesthetics or an EVH aficionado who craves the ultimate Van Halen playing experience, the EVH Stealth delivers like no other Wolfgang.

What does it sound like?

Eddie used the EVH Wolfgang USA Stealth throughout Van Halen's North American tour this year, but in case you missed them, here's our own Paul Riario to give you a demo:

MSRP: $3,999.99 | Visit EVHGear.com to learn more about this guitar.

From its humble origins in the back of a small music store in London, Marshall Amplification has defined the sound of rock for generations of guitarists around the world. The History of Marshall Amps: The First Fifty Years by Michael Doyle and Nick Bowcott tells the story of Jim Marshall's remarkable life and documents the many innovations of Marshall amplifiers, from the famous “stack” to the most current offerings. It's available at the Guitar World Online Store.

Ibanez Paul Gilbert FRM100

Ibanez's Paul Gilbert model, the FRM100 (the TR often seen in the name refers to Translucent Red) takes the "signature" theme to a new level. After all, Gilbert pretty much designed this guitar himself.

"I designed the Fireman on my computer by taking a photo of an Ibanez Iceman and turning it upside-down in Adobe Photoshop," Gilbert told GuitarWorld.com in May. "Then I just worked out the extra details like adding the lower cutaway, angling the pickups, designing the pickguard shape and asking for a big, beefy neck joint. Ibanez brought the idea to life in their custom shop, and I fell in love with the guitar. The production model is killer. I used a factory sample for the whole Mr. Big tour last year."

The neck on Fireman is different than the previous RG shapes in the Gilbert signature series. It's thicker and fatter -- 22mm at the first fret and 24mm at the 12th fret. The three-piece mahogany/maple/mahogany neck offers a fat, tight sound and a solid grip. The pickups are DiMarzio Injectors in the bridge and neck and a DiMarzio Area '67 in the middle; they are designed with hum-cancelling construction to eliminate the noise but retain single-coil tone.

Other features include a mahogany body, medium frets and a Tight Tune bridge.

What does it sound like?

Here's an official Ibanez video starring Gilbert and the Fireman in action:

MSRP: $1,199.99 | Visit Ibanez.com for more info about this guitar.

ESP KH-2 Kirk Hammett Signature Model

Kirk Hammett adopted a Strat-style ESP between the recording of ...And Justice For All and the band's mega-selling self-titled album, ditching the '74 Gibson Flying V he had relied so heavily on in the band's early years. "I used that V on every album prior to this one," Hammett told Guitar World in 1991, "but the ESP just sounded a bit rounder."

At Winter NAMM 2012, ESP introduced several new models to commemorate 25 years of partnership with Metallica's lead guitarist. In those 25 years, the essential Hammett signature model has to be the KH-2, which comes in a sleek black finish or the "vintage" look, which comes complete with "Caution: Hot" and "Kirk's Guitar" stickers.

The KH-2 also features a set of EMG pickups, a Floyd Rose Original bridge and a specially contoured neck that's perfect for nimble players.

What does it sound like?

There isn't an official video demo for the KH-2, but the nice thing about signature guitars is you can point to the artists themselves as examples. In this case, pop in a copy of the Black Album and you'll hear why Kirk fell in love with these guitars.

MSRP: $3,285.00 | Visit ESPGuitars.com for more on this guitar.

PRS Guitars Santana Signature

This model might be at the higher end of the price spectrum as far as this list is concerned, but it truly is a work of art. The guitar, the product of a longstanding creative partnership between Paul Reed Smith and Carlos Santana, comes standard with a maple top, mahogany back, rosewood fretboard, 24-fret mahogany neck, 24 1/2-inch-scale length and PRS tremolo.

The guitar also features PRS' relatively new V12 finish, a thin, hard and clear finish that doesn't crack or react with thinners. "PRS models with this new finish feel like old instruments," said Paul Reed Smith of the finish, which is halfway between acrylic and nitro.

Other features include a carved, figured maple top; inlaid purfling strips; custom bird inlays; a bound rosewood fretboard, nickel hardware; and a rosewood headstock veneer with an inlaid eagle. The pickups are specially designed Santana Treble and Bass models.

What does it sound like?

If you have some time, check out this Musician's Friend video featuring Santana and Paul Reed Smith discussing guitar playing in general, Santana's thoughts about PRS, his signature model and other topics.

In terms of a helpful demo video, there are no videos available from PRS or Guitar World, and YouTube is particularly skimpy on the subject. Note that most of the available PRS Santana demo videos refer to the lower-priced SE model, and you can check out Paul Riario's review of the SE right here. Here's hoping PRS produces a video that explores the features of the higher-end signature model.

MSRP: $5,000 | Visit prsguitars.com for more info about this guitar.

Epiphone Limited Edition Slash Appetite Les Paul Standard

Limited to just 3,000 copies, the limited-edition Slash "Appetite" Les Paul Standard is a more-affordable alternative to the Gibson model of the same name.

Modeled after the Kris Derrig-made Les Paul copy used by Slash on Guns N' Roses' classic Appetite for the Destruction album, the Slash Appetite Les Paul comes with two Seymour Duncan Slash Alnico II Pro humbuckers, a LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge and a neck profile created especially for the mad hatter himself.

“All things considered, with the original one, it just happened to have a certain sort of unique tone unto itself,” Slash said in a video from Gibson. “The new Appetite for Destruction guitar is about as close as anybody could get to the original.”

What does it sound like?

For a look at just how this guitar performs, check out this video from Rainbow Music in Carlisle, England.

MSRP: $1,525 | Visit Epiphone.com to learn more about this guitar

Dimebag Dean From Hell CFH

Like Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell has no shortage of worthy signature models to choose from. And while you can't go wrong with any axe from Dean's ML series, we had to pick just one, and the Dean From Hell CFH model gets the nod.

Featuring a set mahogany V-neck and all-black hardware (because bad guys wear black), the Dean From Hell's lightning-bolt graphic is pure, vintage Dime, a fitting reproduction of the guitar that graces the cover of Pantera's breakout album, Cowboys From Hell.

The Dean From Hell is equipped with a Floyd Rose Special bridge and Bill Lawrence XL500 pickups, making it a high-output monster perfect for shredders of all stripes. Getcha pull!

What does it sound like?

Paired with your preferred high-gain amp, the Dean from Hell chugs, wails and squeals just like a Dime signature guitar should.

MSRP: $1,135.88 | Visit DeanGuitars.com to learn more about this guitar.

Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar

The ultra-cool Fender Jaguar never really got the widespread, mainstream appreciation it deserves; perhaps that's because of the model's supposedly confusing control layout. Get ready to throw that excuse out the window and give the Jag another shot. This new model developed by Fender for Johnny Marr (The Smiths, The Cribs, Modest Mouse) features some terrific updates.

For starters, it features a four-position blade-style pickup switch (bridge; bridge and neck in parallel; neck, bridge, and neck in series), plus two upper-horn slide switches that control pickup brightness. The pickups are custom-wound, Bare Knuckle Johnny Marr single-coil neck and bridge models. The maple neck is custom-shaped maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard that's based on Marr’s '65 Jag.

Other features include nylon bridge post inserts for improved stability, a “taller” tremolo arm with arm-sleeve nylon insert to prevent arm swing, 22 vintage-style frets; a 24-inch-scale neck, chrome hardware and a vintage-style truss rod.

Guitar World gear reviewer Chris Gill calls it "the best Jaguar that the company has ever produced" — and there's no denying this guitar looks killer in Olympic White.

What does it sound like?

Here are two videos that'll fill in the blanks about this guitar. The first one is an official Fender video featuring Marr; the second one features GW's Paul Riario.

MSRP: $4,100 | Visit fender.com for more info about this guitar.

Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci JP12

The latest guitar to spring from Music Man's longstanding partnership with Dream Theater's John Petrucci, the JP12 is a road-ready guitar featuring a veritable shredder's toolbox of features.

The JP-12 (which we should also mention comes in a 7-string model) comes stock with a custom John Petrucci Music Man Piezo floating tremolo. A DiMarzio Crunch Lab pickup sits in the bridge position with a DiMarzio Liquifire pickup in the neck position, giving you loads of clarity and output.

The guitar's ebony fretboard plays fast for ultra-fluid legato work and clean sweeps, making the only limitation on the JP12 how fast your hands can move while playing Chopin's Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus No. 2.

What does it sound like?

In the below video, Petrucci shows off the capabilities of his newest signature model:

MSRP: $3,500 | Visit Music-Man.com to learn more about this guitar

Gretsch G6120TV Brian Setzer Hot Rod

Gretsch makes a slew of beautiful Brian Setzer signature models, most of which are variations of a traditional 6120 Nashville. And then there's the Brian Setzer Hot Rod model, which is basically the Nashville's evil, mean twin, a guitar with a one-track mind. This is a Gretsch that's ready for rockin' right out of the box.

As Gretsch puts it, the Hot Rod is stripped down and built for speed. You get one three-position pickup switch, a single master-volume control and two TV Jones-designed Hot Rod Filter’Tron pickups that crank out some fiery tones.

Other features include a full 16-inch single-cutaway, bound, hollow body; a 1959-style trestle bracing and F holes; a two-piece rock maple neck with a bound ebony fingerboard; Sperzel locking tuners; pinned Adjusto-Matic bridge; chrome hardware and a Bigsby B6C vibrato tailpiece.

What does it sound like?

Once again, here's our own Paul Riario in a GW video from 2007:

MSRP: $3,600 | Visit gretschguitars.com for more info about this guitar.

Schecter Synyster Gates Custom

The Synyster Gates Custom is a mean-looking guitar with an original body shape, an eye-catching headstock and a cool "deathbat" inlay.

But what really makes the guitar stand out are the Seymour Duncan Custom Syn Invaders pickups, which produce the heaviest tones a passive pickup can produce. They feature three ceramic magnets, over-wound coils and 12 chrome cap screws. Sustainiac Driver/Pickup produces solid humbucker tones when the Sustain switch is off and works as the Sustainiac Driver when switched on.The Sustainiac Driver creates an infinite feedback sustain of string vibrations by electromagnetic feedback.

And then there's the ebony fretboard. According to Schecter Guitar Research, "Ebony has a snappy, crisp attack with the density of maple, but with more brittle grains, oilier pores and a stronger fundamental tone than maple. It has a tremendous amount of percussive overtones in the pick attack, that mute out shortly thereafter to foster great, long, sustain."

Other features include a mahogany body, a 25.5-inch-scale three-piece mahogany neck, 24 extra-jumbo frets, a Floyd Rose 100 Series bridge and Grover tuners. It's an axe worthy of the Avenged Sevenfold guitarist.

What does it sound like?

Although this video wasn't created by Schecter Guitar Research or Guitar World, it does an OK job of demonstrating the guitar's many features — especially if you skip to around 2:06.

MSRP: $1,649 | Visit schecterguitars.com for more info about this guitar.

Eagle Rock Entertainment will release a new Stray Cats DVD, Live At Montreux 1981 on November 6.

The concert, which has been restored with DTS Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Stereo, features 15 songs, almost equally divided between original compositions and vintage rockabilly classics from 1956 to '61.

Of the 15, nine were on the Stray Cats’ first album, and some of the others were released as B-sides and EP tracks. Some of the tracks have never appeared on official releases.

When the Stray Cats rolled into Montreux, they were coming off three hit singles (“Rock This Town,” “Stray Cat Strut,” and “Runaway Boys”), a UK Top 10 album and a string of headlining concerts.

Relocating from New York City to London in 1980, just a year after their formation, with a combination of covers and originals, performed with punk enthusiasm yet true to the genre’s roots, they were an instant smash, garnering such high profile fans as Jeff Beck, Robert Plant and members of the Rolling Stones.

The crowd in Montreux reacted with near-hysterical excitement (inciting three encores); something rarely seen in what is usually a polite and reserved audience.

TRACK LISTING

• 01. Sweet Love On My Mind
• 02. Double Talking Baby
• 03. Rumble In Brighton
• 04. My One Desire
• 05. Ubangi Stomp
• 06. Drink That Bottle Down
• 07. Storm The Embassy
• 08. Stray Cut Strut
• 09. Fishnet Stockings
• 10. Important Words
• 11. Rock This Town
• 12. Runaway Boys
• 13. Be Bop A Lula
• 14. Somethin’ Else
• 15. Pretty Pretty Baby