Get there early, this one is sure to sell out. Fuck the Stary Cats, if you want to see the best rockabilly band on the planet, these are the cats to see.
Authenticity is the key to the music of Rockabilly Hall of Fame members Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Although they've moved from their rockabilly roots to a sound that encompasses folk, bluegrass, Western swing, Cajun, and mariachi influences, the six-piece Southern California-based band continues to be faithful to the music of the past. According to CD Review, "you'd swear that the sound's a match for any early Capitol album you have tucked away in your collection." Despite their connection with days gone by, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys maintain a foot in the present as well. Internet fanzine Eatmag claimed that the "music might remind you of yesteryear, but the stories about love, wanting to love, and wanting to be loved are timeless." Metroactive Music also commented on Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys' ability to create their own niche when they wrote that the band "flies right by the poseur high-moussed hair and washable tattoos of such '80s rockabilly phenoms as the Stray Cats into an aerie all their own where the music is to dance to and the words can make you cry."
Big Sandy (born Rusty Williams) grew up listening to his parents' collection of jump blues records. Inspired by the rockabilly revival of the early '80s, he began to perform with a variety of neo-rockabilly bands in Southern California. Formed as a trio, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys soon expanded to its lineup featuring Wally Hersom (bass), Lee Jeffriess (steel guitar), Ashley Kingman (guitar), and Bobby Trimble (drums). Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys represent an international collaboration with Kingman and Jeffriess hailing from the U.K. Their debut album, Jumping from 6 to 6, was produced by ex-Blasters guitarist Dave Alvin. While their second album, Swingin' West, released in 1995, focused on the Western swing influences on their sound, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys took a more eclectic approach with their effort Feelin' Kinda Lucky, released in 1997.
The following year, Big Sandy and the group took a break from each other and recorded separately. Big Sandy's solo album, Dedicated to You, featured covers of R&B and doo-wop oldies, while the band's album, Big Sandy Presents His Fly-Rite Boys, was an instrumental tour de force. Big Sandy and the band reunited during the recording of an EP, Radio Favorites, released in 1999. Although original plans called for three new tracks to be combined with three tunes available only on vinyl copies of the band's albums, the comradery in the recording studio was so strong that they decided to record six new songs instead. The EP introduced the piano playing of Carl Sonny Leyland, who joined shortly after the recording of Feelin' Kinda Lucky. Night Tide appeared in 2000. It's Time followed three years later. A collection featuring Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys' biggest hits for Hightone and HMG were featured on Big Rockin' Sandy in 2004.
