To The Great Woman Of Rockabilly
Bettie And The Rurals
Released- 18th June 2024, available on all digital platforms and on CD from the band. Recorded May 2024 at Freedonia del sur Studios, Pilar, Argentina. Production-Mack Stevens. Design- Marco Tornado
Reviewed by Terry Mead 07/08/24
Bettie and the Rurals are a four-piece Rockabilly/Rock n Roll band from Temuco, Chile. This EP is a tribute to female Rockabilly singers that have influenced Bettie and the way that the band plays their music. The rest of the band have influences that range from modern rockabilly, blues, country and psychobilly. The recording of this EP was achieved by four mics running through an old 1958 gates tube mixer into a TEAC reel to reel. Two tracks, one for music (no mixing allowed) and the other for the Sun slapback echo.
Members of the Band:
Vocals and Rhythm Guitar- Bettie Mel Lead Guitar-Rudy Juarez, Upright Bass-Eddie Rocker, Drums-Marco Tornado
Track by track Review
Rock-A-Bop – Recorded by Sparkle Moore in 1956, Gritty performance from Bettie kicks us off giving us plenty of hiccup sounding echo’s just like her predecessor. Its more in your face with an up-tempo beat making it a fast jiver.
Everlasting Love – Originally recorded by Don Hosea and Barbara Pittman in 1958, plenty of slap and a neat guitar break with Bettie on vocals giving it the Barbara Pittman style sound.
Drugstore Rock n Roll – Recorded by Janis Martin in 1956, lively cover here and a tribute to one of the legendary Rockabilly pioneers. Again, one for the dancers and connoisseurs of the music.
Saturday Jump-To end with one from Kim Lenz and her Jaguars 1998 album, more of a modern rockabilly, Bettie’s rendition ticks all the boxes with some awesome guitar work from Rudy high notes this cover, like the original a lively number and a sure-fast floor filler.
To Summarise: Four rockabilly queens tributed by Bettie and the Rurals to a high degree, produced in a similar manner and mastered by a great musician with the knowledge of 1950s recordings, in a nutshell top draw tracks with the originals at heart, give it a whirl it’s a blast.
Links to Social Media: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nBI2h4VH3L0j7haqV0z3qUyfN0j9SRik8&si=GDOPZoZcqWVQagh0
Track List:
1.Rock-A-Bop
2.Everlasting Love
3.Drugstore Rock n Roll
4.Saturday Jump
Band Bio, in the words of Bettie Mel:
Bettie and the Rurals got together in June 2022 when me, Bettie, moved to live in the very south of Chile. There, Rudy Juarez and Eddie Rocker where friends and had the idea of having a rockabilly band. If rockabilly is not very popular in Chile, imagine how it was in a very small southern city of Chile!!! When I arrived, they asked me to do something, and I agreed. At the beginning we had no drummer and play our first months with a very 50's formation.
As we wanted to get a more modern sound, we invited our first drummer, who was a metal player, he supported us, but in terms of sound, he had a very aggressive way of playing not so compatible with our project.
By the end of 2022, Marco Tornado joined the band, a country music drummer whose sound and influences were very compatible with out musical ideas.
In 2023 we started to participate in bigger festivals and presentations, we even were invited to perform in Brazil sharing stage with Charlie Hightone.
At the beginning of this year, we were invited to Argentina to the 'American wild fest' in this instance we shared scenario with Mack stevens, who loved our sound and invited us to record at his studio... the EP 'To the rockabilly women' was actually very improvised.
At the moment, we haven't recorded our own songs, but we perform a couple of them live. This year, we came back to Argentine in September, to perform at the 'San PEdro country music' the biggest south American festival for blues, country and rockabilly music (60.000 people attend)... last year performed Johnny Tedesco for example! It is a dream to us... we will continue working till we become good enough for performing in other festival around the world
We are all amateur musician with other professions, teacher, lawyer, businessman, and engineer but we love rockabilly. It all started very low profile but people have been very supportive to us so we have big dreams
Bettie and The Rurals
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