The Reverend Horton Heat ain’t just a person, or a band—it’s a state of mind. Drawing on such crazed rockabilly ancestors as Charlie Feathers, Hasil Adkins, and The Killer himself, James (Reverend Horton) Heath and his long-time bassist Jimbo Wallace have, over the course of the last 30-plus years, helped bring rockabilly kicking and screaming into the modern age, marrying punk with rockabilly to create the psychobilly genre. And, on their 2000 album Spend the Night in the Box—which, to burnish the “psycho” credentials, was produced by fellow Texan Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers fame—The Reverend Horton Heat struck gold (hence our gold vinyl edition!), going to #2 on the CMJ charts on the strength of such numbers as “Sue Jack Daniels,” “The Girl in Blue,” and other misbegotten tales of babes and booze. This is actually a bit of a return to a classic rockabilly/swing sound, powered by the Rev’s 1954 Gibson ES-175 and the rhythm section of Wallace and drummer Scott Churilla, but it’s no less (ahem) heated. Vinyl debut boasting inner sleeve with lyrics!
