J Roddy Walston And The Business (self-titled)

All hail the rebirth of Southern Rock sensibilities! J Roddy Walston fuses together dirty blues beats and even dirtier rock runs, creating a raw and raucous album that rolls in like a rush of blood to all the right places. J Roddy Walston and the Business's debut album is everything I ever wanted out of a Jack White album, minus Jack White. Instead, Walston and his Business partners come across as something of a Black Crowes/White Stripes love-child. The resulting album is track after track of loud, proud, pissed-off, right-on rock and roll. You can almost hear the hoarseness growing in J Roddy's vocals as the album advances.

J Roddy Walston and the Business just may be the greatest "bar band" of all time. From the opening piano part of "Don't Break the Needle", you just NEED a beer to fully appreciate all that this album has to offer: a whole damn house party packed into a 37.7-minute mesmerizing, messy masterpiece. The vocals veer high and low like a man who's visited the verge of Hell in his earlier days and now vacations there during down times. The guitars are gritty, gained-up and grab hold of your gut like a pitbull that can't-for-the-love-of-god let go. The percussion pivots from piano to 5-piece kit without so much as a pause, giving the band a broader base by which to build their own brand of southern symphonies. It all comes together in a cohesive collaboration of sonic screams sung to down-home ditties. This kind of rock n roll is why vinyl records and jukeboxes still exist. This isn't one of those albums that I want everyone to hear; it's one of those albums that everyone needs. I repeat: You need this album. Go get it! Now. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Highlights: "Don't Break The Needle" and "Don't Get Old"