Rockabilly icon Brian Setzer shares second single from forthcoming solo album
Smash Up On Highway One finds the Strat Cats man paying homage to Dick Dale with a killer surf-tossed riff
Brian Setzer's first solo album in seven years, Gotta Have The Rumble, is out on 27 August via Surf Dog records, and ahead of the release the rockabilly superstar has shared a second single – the surf rock-inspired Smash Up On Highway One.
While the vocal is unmistakable, likewise an electric guitar tone that's pure 1950s rock 'n' roll twang, Smash Up On Highway One is a change of pace for Setzer, switching up up his rockabilly playbook to incorporate a cool guitar motif that references Dick Dale and the surf rock sound he pioneered.
“I was playing Misirlou by Dick Dale with the Stray Cats, and I thought, ‘wow I’d love to write something as cool as that riff,’“ says Setzer. “So I came up with something out of left field. I don’t know what you would call it – Middle Eastern or Eastern-European. Some college professor probably has a name for that scale. I had that riff laying around.“
Without wanting to sound like a college professor, that does sound like Setzer's riff incorporates elements of a double harmonic major scale, just as Dale did on Miserlou. But given that surf rock was really rockabilly by the sea with fresh twist, it's no surprise to hear it work so well with Setzer's sound.
“I think it’s really cool – it’s a way to move the whole rockabilly genre forward. The surf drum part in there with the guy playing the tom-toms similar to Wipeout. I love it.”
Gotta Have The Rumble is produced by Julian Raymon (Cheap Trick), was recorded in Sezter's home town Minneapolis and in Nashville, and features 10 tracks all written or cowritten by Setzer, with the lyrics to Smash Up On Highway One written by Mike Himelstein.
The album is out on streaming platforms and CD on 27 August, with a vinyl release scheduled soon after. See Brian Setzer for more details.
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.
- Read more: 9 essential rockabilly guitar chords
Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
"This is not just a remaster, this is a brand new 2024 rebuild of the entire Queen debut album": Brian May heads up a new stereo mix project so ambitious, they've given the album a new title
"I wrote that riff when I was 15": How A-ha's Take On Me beat the odds against them to become one of the biggest songs of all time