Says the Durham Independent Weekly's Grant Britt:

Connections aside, Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys would seem an unusual choice for Yep Roc at first glance. Sure, the California-based band certainly qualifies in the roots music category, with which Yep Roc is loosely associated, but their sound draws heavily from rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B, swing and blues, too.

But Dicker says it's a sensible relationship: "They represent the absolute best of what they do. It felt like it was a natural fit for us because of that."

Dicker believes the band's new album, Turntable Matinee, encapsulates everything that's influenced Big Sandy, showcasing a variety that wasn't visible on his earlier records. Understandably, it's been frustrating for Sandy Williams to read reviews stating that Turntable Matinee sounds like his previous work.

"I just really disagree with that," he says by phone from his Southern California home. "Sometimes bands like ourselves can be written off as a retro act or just rehashing old stuff, and I don't think that's the case."

But the music on Turntable doesn't sound old, at least not negatively: It's vibrant, as strong now as when vinyl grooves rattled tinny speakers five decades ago. His velvety voice sounds like Ricky Nelson, with traces of Elvis' bravado busting through in places. And these aren't rehashed covers: Williams wrote most of the songs, and Fly-Rite bassist Jeff West contributed the rest. Like Yep Roc, Big Sandy consciously avoids pigeonholes or easy definitions, and that's the way Big Sandy and the boys want to keep it. You can't co-opt the sound, either. Williams has been pressured by labels to update his sound. That bothers him for two reasons.

"One, we're resistant to being told what to do, and two, I don't know what that would mean," says Williams, who says that the lack of such forces at Yep Roc is a prime reason for staying with the label. "To add hip-hop rhythms or a heavier rock drum sound wouldn't be us. There's a place for that and I don't have a problem with that sort of thing, but it's just not us, we wouldn't be being true to ourselves."

In fact, Williams has only recently become comfortable with mixing different styles of music and adding new elements to the Big Sandy sound. He felt there were certain musical boundaries he shouldn't cross: "It seems like an obvious thing to say you can do whatever you want to do in music, but it's kind of a late revelation for me."

Dicker has no such qualms. He and the rest of Yep Roc look at their diverse catalogue as one body of work. "When we were growing up, we had all sorts of records in our collections, everything from blues to punk rock to country to bluegrass," he says. "To us, it all seems sort of connected, and that's the vision for the label."