The Shack Shakers' frontman, Col JD Wilkes, basks in his reputation as one of the most deranged live performers who ever came shrieking and hollering out of the American south, a Bible in one hand and a bottle of Rebel Yell in the other. He can rip it up on disc too, and this latest instalment from Shakerland is a non-stop riot of blitzkrieging barndances, meltdown polkas and black-hearted blues.

Wilkes' trademark vocal sound is a dry megaphone rasp, and he alternates it with savage harmonica outbursts, as in the Booker T-ish strut of Help Me or the roaring All My Life to Kill. But it's not all paint-peeling decibels, since the foursome also tackle the rustic country waltz of The Pony to Bet On with aplomb and dip a toe into klezmer music in Misery Train.

The devil's music, straight from hell.

Adam Sweeting
Friday December 10, 2004