Jimmy Thackery with The Cate Brothers
In the Natural State

Rykodisc AArkansas music fans will want to latch onto this high-flying 
Northwest Arkansas meeting of the titans.

Jimmy Thackery, a blues rock guitar slinger who hung out mostly on the 
East Coast before moving to Eureka Springs for the love of a woman, has 
gotten together with Earl and Ernie Cate, twins who have quietly and 
professionally plied their soulful rock sound around Arkansas and 
elsewhere for three decades.

The result is a dandy blues/rock package, with Thackery doing most of 
the singing and sharing the guitar spotlight with Earl Cate. Ernie Cate 
handles keyboards and does the singing on the chilling "Levee Prayer" and 
the album finale, "Tell Me Goodbye." Cate Brothers bassist Ron Eoff is 
part of the project, along with Thackery's long-time drummer, Mark Stutso.

Of the 10 songs, Thackery wrote four. Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' for My 
Darling" is covered (and Thackery does his best howlin' and growlin' 
impression here) and there's a nice version of "Ain't That a Lot of Love," 
a much-covered soul song known for versions by Sam & Dave as well as by 
The Band. Just as fine, maybe even more so, is "I'll Come Running Back to 
You," a song Sam Cooke recorded in his early gospel days. Thackery's "Arky 
Shuffle" is the sole instrumental on the album.

At times Thackery and Earl Cate cut loose on some guitar duos that 
recall the classic match-ups of Eric Clapton and the late Duane Allman on 
the Derek & the Dominos album, as well as the best of Allman and Dickie 
Betts in the early Allman Brothers Band albums. Older fans will hear bits 
that recall some of the old hits by the Spencer Davis Group and even 
Stealer's Wheel.

So now that we've been teased with this excellent album, shouldn't we 
expect a statewide tour by this lineup? Surely they could at least 
headline a few festivals in coming months, in the best of all possible 
worlds.

- JACK W. HILL