ALLISON THRASH

DO YOU COME WITH THE DRINK?

2014-03-05

Hailing from Austin, Texas, where musical styles cross-pollinate like seeds in a wind-storm, singer Allison Thrash has crafted a disc that is as much garage rock as the blues. Joined by such first call musicians as Johnny Moeller (Fabulous Thunderbirds) and Tjarko Jeen (Ronnie Dawson) on guitars, Frosty Smith (Omar & the Howlers) on drums, Hunt Sales (David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Todd Rundgren) on bass and percussion and the Grooveline Horns, Thrash works her way through 12 original numbers. With a hard-edged voice that recalls Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders or Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane in her psychedelic days, she doesn't so much sing these songs as spit them out dripping with lust, sarcasm, anguish and venom directed at her competition, "Woman Enough", worthless men, "Whoa Baby", men worthy of attention, "Do You Come With the Drink"?, and the irrepressible urge to taste forbidden fruit, "Some of that Ricky". While many of the cuts lope along at a mid-tempo pace "Rubies of Foolishness", "No Poaching" and the lusty, horn-driven, "Thrash and Moan" are up-tempo rockers. Elsewhere, "Put That Toy Down" and "Last Night the Blues Came" have a trippy late-60s vibe with keyboard parts that could have been laid down by the Door's Ray Manzarek. While the material here mostly plays around the edges of the blues, there is plenty to like. Smitty