Frankie Rockin’ Smith – “Christmas Blues”
One of the things that surprises you about 21 year old singer, songwriter and entertainer, Frankie Rockin’ Smith, is that he isn’t interested in rocking the musical boat or venturing off in more trendy musical directions at his age. He’s a young rock and roller with the spirit of the 50’s surging through his veins and embraces that. Frankie is also inspired by Shakin’ Stevens, Ricky Nelson and the like, while he adores performing live and showing off his own unique ‘shaky-legs’ moves. Working towards making music his profession, Frankis has just released his debut single – “Christmas Blues”, a song written for him by the Swiss composer Michel F. Bolle.
Presents under brightly lit pines, spiked eggnog, cookies and milk waiting for Santa, stockings hung with care and carols sung with cheer are all familiar notions of the Yuletide. However, this Christmas, Frankie Rockin’ Smith is putting his own spin on the holiday season. And it’s just wonderful to listen.
This is just plain old good music, period. It’s simple, it’s catchy, and it’s fun stuff that never goes out of date. Timeless! Legendary! Classic! That’s usually what they call these type of songs. With each listen, you’ll want to buy a rat rod with some suicide doors, slick your hair back into a duck tail, go down to the soda shop and raise a little hell by drinking soda.
Released by the UK MFB Music Management Label and distributed through Ditto Music worldwide, “Christmas Blues” defies criticism. If you like your rhythm and blues delivered with panache, energy, deep musicianship, and a big crystal clear voice, you’ll be all over this one. The song is strong and loaded with a solid arrangement and lusciously layered instrumentation.
And Frankie deliver’s it with conviction and grace. It’s filled with joy and muscle and a refreshing lack of ego. Sure, it’s self-consciously retro, but Frankie Rockin’ Smith comes onto the scene like an original force to be reckoned with. Call it novelty if you like, but to me, that’s pure rock ‘n’ roll, daddy-o.
As far as many are concerned, the 1950’s was the greatest decade of music the world has ever seen and that probably isn’t going to change. Rock n’ roll, country, R&B. Doesn’t matter what it was, if it dropped in the 50’s, it was probably hot. Elvis and rockabilly led that charge through and the literally endless amount of rockabilly bands and artists from the era, both popular and obscure are almost uniformly fantastic in one way or another.
The rockabilly revivals through the years has been paying tribute to that decade ever since. Frankie Rockin’ Smith is now busy setting himself up to be an important part of the pack. His jump swing, soulful rhythm and blues Christmas tune, beautifully written by Michel F. Bolle and produced by himself, seems like a pretty swell way to start.
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