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Jimmy Thackery

Ex-Nighthawks guitarist Jimmy Thackery has been playing his own brand of blues-tinged rock as a solo artist for some twenty years now (he left the Nighthawks in 1987) and there's no denying that he's a first-class guitarist with a sharp ear for tone and a knack for perfectly placed fills and evocative leads. His quavering, shaky voice is a problem, though, and while he conjures up the feel of an old veteran country singer on some of his slower numbers, his singing often lacks the punch, power and sass of his guitar playing on the more upbeat material.

You don't buy a Jimmy Thackery album for the vocals, though, and fans of his crisp guitar work won't be disappointed at all with Solid Ice, which comes packed with wonderful riffs and multi-tracked leads. Thackery took half a year off from the road to write the songs for this project, so it's a bit ironic that the best five tracks (roughly half the album) are instrumentals. The vocal cuts are certainly passable, with "How Long," which uses Thackery's hesitant country twang to good advantage, and the powerful "Fifteen Minutes," a treatise on the hollowness of fame that rides over an archetypal chord progression that sounds like a slowed-down version of the riff to AC/DC's "Problem Child," being the most singular.

It's the instrumentals, though, that really shine here, beginning with the no-frills simplicity of "Hobart's Blues" and the fluid, gliding prettiness of "Daze in May." The album ends with a sort of instrumental suite, including the title track, "Solid Ice," the country-tinged "Blue Tears Reprise" (which revisits a vocal track, "Blue Tears," from earlier in the album sequence) and a solid cover of Jimi Hendrix's funky "Who Knows," which brings everything to a close on a fiery up note. The end result of all this is a solid outing, but it feels a bit like Thackery is in a holding pattern. His singing isn't likely to change, so unless he decides to go completely country and turns that voice from a shaky point into an effective character study, he might give a thought to an album of instrumentals because his guitar sure can talk that talk and he has already proven that he can play anything from surf to jazz

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363
Album Review

Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers: Inside Tracks

Read "Inside Tracks" reviewed by Mike Perciaccante


On the eleventh Drivers CD, Jimmy Thackery seems to be showing off his talent as a songwriter. Known mostly for his guitar virtuosity, Thackery has truly matured as a lyricist with this release. While he will never be confused with Paul McCartney or Chris Difford, he does hold his own on Inside Tracks.

On the disc, Thackery continues to mine the elusive Americana musical genre by blending country, R&B, a bit of surf music and a whole lot ...

158
Album Review

Jimmy Thackery: Healin' Ground

Read "Healin' Ground" reviewed by Jim Santella


Jimmy Thackery's feel-good contemporary blues-rock album provides a Healin' Ground for whatever ails ya. He drives his message home with stories to tell and a powerful guitar that talks better 'n most of us during our daily activities, as he communicates on a personal level with his audience.

As “Healin' Ground" drives with its powerful backbeat, Thackery sings of being saved when times are tough. Hey, the times are always tough, and we certainly find ourselves in need ...

362
Album Review

Jimmy Thackery: Healing Ground

Read "Healing Ground" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Dear Reader: Go and find a copy of the Nighthawk's Open All Night (Genes, 1976/1995). Cue up the first song, Sonny Boy Williamson's “Nine Below Zero. The singer and guitarist is a youthful James Thackery, veteran of 300-plus shows a year, squeezing out those perfectly streamlined blues licks like they mean something. Fast forward to the present and hear a very different Thackery, one right out of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Healing Ground is ostensibly a blues album. It is ...

235
Album Review

Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers: True Stories

Read "True Stories" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Jim Thackery, when he was part of the Nighthawks, played the most devastating version of Sonny Boy Williamson’s (Rice Miller) "Nine Below Zero" I have ever heard. Thackery played fast and accurate, without a single wasted note, betraying long nights at the roadhouse. Journeyman is the perfect designation for Thackery: he spent the better part of the 1970s and ‘80s touring 300 nights a year. Retiring from that, Thackery took some time off, went through a couple of bands before ...

129
Album Review

Jimmy Thackery and Tab Benoit: Whiskey Store

Read "Whiskey Store" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


A smokin’ set from two of the contemporary best...

This disc has everything going for it. There is Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm section, Double Trouble. Then, there is that ace harmonica player from Kosciusko, Mississippi, Charlie Musselwhite. And that finally brings us to the two principles, Tab Benoit and James Thackery. The former is a 35 year-old Houma, Louisiana Native who has been stirring up the bayou since the early 1990s with a molten brand of swamp gumbo. The latter ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Inside Tracks

Telarc Records
2008

buy

Healing Ground

Telarc Records
2005

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Healin' Ground

Telarc Records
2005

buy

True Stories

Telarc Records
2003

buy

Whiskey Store

Telarc Records
2002

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