The Reverend Horton Heat headlines Rockabillaque Florida. THOM JACKSON / COURTESY PHOTO
The Reverend Horton Heat recently played a private event where front man Jim Heath had an unusual encounter with one of the attendees.
“There were these young people there, and this young girl came up — and I say young, she was late teens/early 20s — and she said, ‘You guys are going to bring back rock and roll,’” Heath recalled in a recent phone interview.
Who knows whether this young lady was familiar with the catalogs of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard. But Heath said her observation was right on point.
“I said (to her) ‘Well, that is the goal. It’s astute of you to notice that,” Heath said. “That’s what I’m thinking here.’
“What I started thinking about lately is just a particular type of rock and roll. See, I have a very tight idea of what rock and roll is. What I want to do is bring back rock and roll. We can play rockabilly, we can play country, we can play our old stuff and whatever is fine. But just straight rock and roll — and we have those songs that are on all of our albums — I’m about to start bringing those back. To me, rock and roll is that straight eight, Chuck Berry (with) Johnnie Johnson pounding straight eights on a rock and roll piano, or Little Richard. I’m influenced a lot in my playing by piano players, Jerry Lee (Lewis), and that straight eight kind of feel.”
As Heath suggested, he has been recording songs that fit his strict definition of rock and roll since he formed the Reverend Horton Heat in the late 1980s. And with the group’s latest album, “Whole New Life,” he is focusing more on creating songs in the vein of music’s original rock and rollers.
But that isn’t the only thing that makes “Whole New Life” stand out in the Reverend Horton Heat catalog of 12 albums. This album marks a new era for the band itself. After being a trio for nearly all of its 30-plus-year history, the group became a quartet, with Matt Jordan playing piano and organ.
There’s also a new drummer, Arjuna “RJ” Contreras, who took over just prior to the recording of “Whole New Life” for Scott Churilla, who over two stints behind the drum kit spent 16 years with the Reverend Horton Heat — easily the longest tenure of any of the five previous drummers that have played in the band, which also includes long-time bassist Jimbo Wallace.
Contreras is making his presence felt with his command of a variety of styles of rhythm and an ability to put a bit more swing into the Reverend Horton Heat sound. But it’s Jordan, whose piano is the most noticeable new ingredient in the music and helps the band achieve more of the early rock and roll sound that Heath wanted to emphasize on “Whole New Life.”
Heath points to the title song, “Wonky,” “Perfect” and “Got It In My Pocket” as prime examples of songs from “Whole New Life” that embody the early rock and roll sound. These songs still feature Heath’s guitar work (especially on the latter pair of tunes), but are aided greatly by Jordan’s driving piano lines and the high-octane tempos being laid down by Contreras.
“Whole New Life,” though, is not a one-note album by any means. “Tchoupitoulas Street” is a rare — for the Reverend Horton Heat — foray into New Orleans R&B. There’s a bluesy, barrelhouse feel to “Hog Tyin’ Woman,” a tune that continues Heath’s tradition of writing the occasional off-the-wall funny song. The ballad “Don’t Let Go Of Me” is one of the few songs that downshifts the tempo, mixing rock and hints of classic R&B over a measured beat. The song also gives Heath the opportunity to showcase his vocal range as he croons his way through the song’s strong melody.
“I’ve been working really hard on my voice,” Heath said. “I should have done it before. I’m singing a little bit higher on this album and I’m showing a little bit more range.”
Heath also brings a bit of a different tone to “Whole New Life” as a lyricist.
“It’s by far the most positive album I’ve ever written lyrically. Most of my stuff is kind of dark and blue, and this one has some positive ideas going on.”
The quality of the “Whole New Life” album is impressive, especially considering it had to be recorded under less-than-ideal circumstances. The band’s recording session at Modern Electric studio in its home base of Dallas was fast approaching when Churilla vacated his drum chair.
Heath was able to get Contreras on board just in time to be ready to record.
“In about 10 day’s notice he learned all of these songs. We went in the studio, rehearsed them for a while and recorded it,” Heath said, noting the actual recording was completed in just two days. “That was the only way we could do it. It was crazy because we were out of time. We had that time blocked off to do an album. We had to do it or else no album for like two years.”
With the basic tracks recorded, Heath then re-did some of his guitar parts and vocals at his own Dallas studio, had Jordan add his piano parts and added some miscellaneous parts and backing vocals to create the finished tracks for the album.
Heath liked what he heard from new four-man lineup. But the group is back down to a trio, after Jordan departed the group last year. The trio is working out as well.
“Our new drummer, RJ Contreras, he’s so great,” Heath said. “That’s been something that really, he came in and just stabilized the whole thing very well. He’s a very, very stable drummer, and then he brought in his own style a little bit, some of that, the jazz and Latin stuff in there. It’s really cool, man.” ¦