A heady blend of southern roots

The great west coast R&B guitarist Kid Ramos, who features on the album, is a long-time guitarist with the James Harman Band and The Fabulous Thunderbirds and has cut a number of fine R&B solo albums, as well as being a fully-fledged member of touring band The Mannish Boys.

Vocals and accordion maestro Jesus Cuevas was formerly frontman with the east Los Angeles group The Blazers, known for their rousing mix of rocked-up norteño and other Mexican styles, combined with blues, surf and country music.

The album opens with a cover of Huey "Piano" Smith's rocker Educated Fool, blending Ramos's blues guitar with Cuevas's chugging accordion.

Other covers include rockabilly star Gene Maltais's Crazy Baby, with Cuevas taking the vocals, while Ramos takes the mic for the Johnny Burnette original Lonesome Tears In My Eyes, a blistering take on Lloyd Price's Just Because, Clifton Chenier's zydeco classic All Night Long and a killer take on Rockin' Sidney's You Ain't Nothin' But Fine.

Un Mojado Sin Licencia is reminiscent of those great numbers Ry Cooder performed with Flaco Jimenez, while Day After Day is a hard-hitting blues theme, with great accordion from Cuevas.

Not to be outdone, Burnin' The Chicken is an instrumental showcase for Ramos's wonderful guitar playing.

Kid Ramos explains: "We mix it up. We play songs in Spanish, then we'll do a Fats Domino song, then we'll play a blues and then we'll do a Buck Owens or Johnny Cash song.

"People look and go: 'What?' Then, all of a sudden, they just start dancing and having smiles on their faces."

Sounds good to me - now pass me a shot of that tequila.

HAVANA SLIM