Search - Charlie Chesterman :: Dynamite Music Machine

Boston's Scruffy the Cat was the late-punk-era's equivalent of NRBQ--a band that mixed a love for blues, country, rockabilly, and pop hooks with an unpolished, let-'er-rip irreverence. After Scruffy broke up, its chief singer/songwriter, Charlie Chesterman, celebrated his love of country music on 1996's Studebakersfield, but on 1997's Dynamite Music Machine, he's back to the '50s-rock fundamentals which have always linked him to NRBQ. The dozen songs include two hit singles from 1959--Freddy Cannon's "Tallahassee Lassie" and Fats Domino's "I'm Ready"--plus eight originals that would have comfortably fit that year's AM play-lists. Chesterman even dedicates the new album to "the Holy Trilogy: Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, and the Ramones." As has been the case throughout his career, Chesterman's biggest asset is a knack for coming up with simple but memorable guitar figures and sing-along choruses, and his biggest liability is a thin tenor with a narrow range. He hedges against the latter by never demanding too much of himself vocally, and he highlights the former by speeding up the guitar riffs so they build up a tension that he releases in his satisfying chorus hooks. The first song, "Goodbye to You," begins as a twangy country ballad but soon shifts gears into an infectious, sax-honking rocker. "True Love Song #9" mimics a Rolling Stones riff as it builds to a Buddy Holly-like romantic confession. On the tongue-in-cheek original, "Wants to Be Bob Dylan Singing Electric Guitar Blooze," Chesterman and his loose-limbed band, the Legendary Motorbikes, seem constantly on the verge of falling apart, but bring the song safely home to its joyful conclusion. --Geoffrey Himes