Hello, everyone... I'd like to take a moment to tell you a bit about the music on my new CD -- 'Let Me Ride In Your Automobile' -- which is coming out on El Toro Records. When label founder Carlos Diaz came up with the idea of me recording a disc for El Toro, he suggested that I use CC Jerome's Jetsetters as the backing band. I had known the accomplished roots-rock guitarist CC Jerome for about ten years or so and, since I was in Belgium at the time and he and the Jetsetters (bassist Deon Buck and drummer Coen Molenschot) were right over the border in Holland, it seemed like a cool idea. El Toro is a label which is well known for spotlighting American-style roots music, rockabilly and rhythm & blues, so I figured that's the kind of direction we would take. I tried to focus on the type of musical material somewhat similar to what I used to play with The Blasters during our 1980's Los Angeles heyday and maybe throw in some ideas from my later years with The Fabulous Thunderbirds down in Austin, Texas. Anyway, I'd written some rockers, a couple of different-sounding grooves, plus two instrumentals, while also selecting four songs by others to cover, including the title track. I wanted the sound and feel of the music to be live and spontaneous and Jerome and the guys all agreed. Our producer/engineer Roel knew exactly what we were looking for and we were able to record each song in either one or two takes with a minimal amount of overdubs. As luck would have it, a good buddy of mine, Nick Curran, was gigging around Holland and Belgium and he contributed some smokin' guitar on a couple of these tracks. On 'The Golden Rule' Nick's guitar is on the left stereo channel while Jerome's guitar can be heard on the right and they each take blistering solos on this cut. 'The Walkout', has Nick handling all the lead guitar with Jerome playing a ferocious backbeat along with Coen's snare drum throughout the song. Listen to the dueling bass lines, a combination of the left hand of the piano and Deon's upright bass, which occur at various times on this one. Thanks, Nick...killer, bro! The opening instrumental, 'Evangeline Stomp', features Jerome's guitar laying down a solid rhythm as the piano and Martin 'Tinez' Van Toor's tenor sax battle it out. Flat-out rockers such as 'Rockin' Little Honey', the hillbilly boogie classic 'Seven Nights To Rock' and a souped-up version of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson's 'Motorhead Baby' are the kinds of upbeat, jump-style, boogie-woogie vocal numbers that I started out playing as a youngster. The guitar, piano and tenor sax absolutely wail on these cuts. The rhumba-flavored 'Just A Midnight Girl' (a cool bridge section and check out Jeffrey Thielens' fine harmonica solo), the funky 'Never Took The Time' (lots of instrumental fireworks and a nice back-up vocal chorus by Holland's Birgit Wijdemans) and the gospel-inspired 'The Blues To Me' (a really good horn arrangement by Martin and some soulful guitar by Jerome here) were all written especially for this CD and each one goes off in a bit of a different direction. I'm also pleased that I was able to record a song which I often play live, the swamp-pop favorite, 'Shirley Jean'. The title cut, 'Let Me Ride In Your Automobile', was recorded in one take with no overdubs whatsoever and is the type of West Coast-cool blues that I heard and played growing up in Los Angeles. We loosely follow Lowell Fulson's arrangement on this song, which I occasionally played live with him back in the early 1970's. The closing instrumental, the up-tempo 'Flying With Whitey', is a boogie-woogie which I composed as a tribute to the Air Force squadron commander of a friend of mine back in the United States and it wraps up the disc with some wild guitar, saxophone and piano. So there you have it. That's my new disc on El Toro Records and, on behalf of everyone who helped make it happen, I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed playing this music. Thanks and warmest regards, -----Gene Taylor.