Biography
Travis & The Flamekats, hailing from Lincoln, Nebraska are made up of the husband and wife team of Travis and Becky Koester, on guitar and bass respectively and find solid support from Chris Robbins' guitar, Ryan Larsen's drums, and harp from John Moss and Mike Cooney.
Album: Easy Street
There's a fine cross-section of styles over the course of nine originals and a few well-placed covers. Bo Diddley's Before You Accuse Me opens the set with Travis delivering some chomping electric blues and for The Basset Lodge Blues, it's a stripped-down acoustic romp with good slide. Parkins Farm actually seems to be the more familiar 'Parchman Farm' and features Cooney's solo harmonica while Howl For Me Baby works off a muscular 'Tramp' groove where Moss delivers the harp. Woman In Love shows Becky Koester to be a potent vocalist while Playin' My Blues is another acoustic workout with some effective guitar. The dud in the set comes in the form of Peaceful Easy Feeling which seems rather out of place, although its inclusion is certainly valid to the Koesters.
A few tracks were recorded 'live' while the balance is made up of relaxed 'living room' work that sounds fine, and vocally, Koester has an appealing style with plenty of grit when called for. A worthwhile effort, although with Travis' guitar prowess, his harp assistants would be better off being fed a steady diet of Little and Big Walter for more of a tough Chicago approach and less of the Bob Dylan-inspired wheedling.
CD Review: Travis & The FlameKats - Easy Street
Amazon: Travis & The FlameKats - Travis & The Flamekats
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