Tammy Lynn Myles and her husband-guitarist Mike Myles continue their interest in rockabilly with their debut album under their new band name Tammy Lynn & Myles High. Formerly known as Raising Scarlet, the husband wife team nail down nine zesty Americana flavored rockers that zing with their brisk instrumentation and authentic genre vocal approaches. Turn My Music On is a credible slice of oldies rock and roll, rockabilly, and country blues. It’s uncanny how at once tight and colorful they and their backing players sound.
For further proof these two know what they’re doing, they included in their recording projects names like Sax Gordon, Travis Colby, Rick Rousseau, Jon Ross, Ray Himmer, Johann Haas, Bruce Hilton, and Charlie Dent.
“Don’t Know Where She Went” opens the album with a measured amount of rockabilly style. They don’t try to bombard the song with flashy technique. Their groove and ever so hip guitar riffs from Mike Myles carry it with compact style. The husband and wife employ a dual lead vocal approach providing a pleasant harmonic lush to the lyrical delivery. And boy, can a certain piano player deliver the goods.
“Sweet As My Baby” finds Mike Myles serving up more rockabilly riffs over a jumpy beat. His raw vocal brings a perfect earthiness, and his melodic line is sweet as pie, notes that skip along a merry path. Tammy Lynn shadows him on the chorus, and together, they make the vocals come alive with a three dimensional fullness.
Title track “Turn My Music On” is a sultry turn at the microphone by Tammy Lynn. Her silky delivery reminds of Wanda Jackson, Patsy Cline, and any female singer from back in the day who had that natural something special in their timbres. This vocal quality makes their sound so real within this genre it isn’t funny. Guest saxophonist Gordon Beadle keeps a vintage, oldies melodic line blowing blissfully in the backdrop. Rollicking piano from that kid from Keene, New Hampshire adds another layer of zing to this batch of fun while Mike Myles slaps out his jumpy, jiving chords.
“Maryann” is a flinty guitar work out and a raspy voiced rocking number. Influenced by the best early 1960s American rock and roll, rockabilly, and doo-wop girl groups, the pair offer up a likable verse-chorus-verse mash up, with Tammy Lynn singing in a winsome school girl timbre as she shadows Mike Myles on the chorus. This one will compel you to tap your toes, sing-along, and nod your head as the guitar radiates bright hipness.
“Box It Came In” cruises along at a mellow tempo as Tammy Lynn sings her prettiest down home timbre yet. She makes you feel the woman’s heartache and cold revenge during a seriously sad moment in life. The guitars, slide, lead, and acoustic, wrap the song in even greater tenderness with their roots spun emotive force inside a gentle delivery.
“Mean, Mean Man” has a bulbous blues groove and sharp piano lines. Mike Myles presses out a lean, mean guitar line that buttresses everything Tammy Lynn opines with her rangy, twangy belt. And, just when you think her words provide a good descriptive view of her mean, mean man, the band makes you feel his forceful personality and stomping swagger. Not to worry, folks, it’s just a song Tammy Lynn and Mike Myles recorded together. It is not biographical.
The defiant, comedic “I Ain’t Drunk” travels on the strength of its carefully measured shuffle beat. Mike Myles sings and a harmonica blows with equal amounts of swishing swagger. The harmonica handles the main melody line with bluesy aplomb and a barrelhouse piano conjures, with its vintage whimsy, a prohibition era speakeasy.
“Good Rockin’ Tonight” plays as briskly as this now popular cover song’s title suggests. Tammy Lynn does her best old time vocal styling here. Wanda Jackson would be proud to learn of a disciple like Tammy Lynn. She’s svelte, rootsie, and she injects her own natural vocal flare without being trapped by her influences. The band around her plays it tight as hell, and that makes the song rock with an even greater force.
Tammy Lynn & Myles High close out their CD with the very brisk “Rye On The Rocks.” The musicians, surf-influenced here, stretch that genre into something shiny, colorful in the lead guitar’s expression during a mid-section. After a brief mirage of calm, the band tears it up once more, leaving us all with something potent to remember them by.
Tammy Lynn & Myles High have certainly found the right calling for their talents. Rockabilly and its sub-genres are a good home for them. Everything is so feisty, emotive, and skillful within a solid framework of knowledge on Turn My Music On.
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