Blues-rock band Texas Scratch released its new self-titled album on Quarto Valley Records. Texas Scratch is made up of three born-and-bred Texas guitarists, Jim Suhler from Dallas, Buddy Whittington from Fort Worth & Vince Converse from Houston. This mighty threesome of big dog guitar slingers takes no prisoners when it comes to red-hot guitar performances, both live and in-studio. This trio of six-string guitar beasts are accompanied on the album by drummer Jeff Simon and bassist Nathaniel Peterson. Their combined efforts have resulted in a debut album consisting of fiery, passionate guitar licks everywhere you turn, soaked in the blues and kicked in the ass by the blues-rock they all love to play. Some of the song titles on the album alone lets the listener know what they are in for – What the Devil Loves, Trip Hammer, Showdown and Louisiana Cock Fight – give a few clues as to what to expect musically. But the album is far from just a six-string shootout or shredding contest between top gun guitarists; the 9 total songs on the album feature 7 original songs written by a combination of Suhler, Whittington & Converse with killer arrangements, passionate vocals, tight ensemble playing, & clever lyrics. Suhler’s & Simon’s day jobs are longtime members of George Thorogood and the Destroyers,in fact, Mr. Simon is an original member of The Destroyers (he co-founded the band with Thorogood in 1973) and Suhler has been a Destroyer since 1999. Suhler is also a founding member of the band Monkey Beat since 1991. Whittington recorded/toured with blues legend John Mayall for 15 years before heading off to an acclaimed solo recording/touring career in 2008 that continues to this day. Converse made his bones with heavy blues-rock power trio Sunset Heights, touring with acts like Johnny Winter, Peter Green, Fats Domino, & Kenny Wayne Shepherd. A devoted blues musician, he now kicks ass with his band, Vince Converse and Big Brother. And Nathaniel Peterson was a member of Savoy Brown. For one reason or another through the years this HOTT blues album never got to see the light of day. That didn’t stop the stories from spreading throughout the music world about what a tremendous album it was. Recorded in October 2009, the album’s release took 14 long years to finally see the light of day as the musicians initially got together in New Jersey to jam and lay down each other’s tracks at the legendary Showplace Studios in Dover, NJ. The album was recorded in four days and produced by the late, great Ben Elliott.
I had the pleasure of catching up with Jim Suhler to get down and dirty into the new self titled album from Texas Scratch. We talk about songwriting and songs, dissect a couple of tracks including ‘I’d Rather Be Lucky Than Good, which he co-wrote with Tom Hambridge. We discussed the choices of stretching out tunes in a live setting and sometimes not. It is clear where some of the influences of this music seem to come from, we do mention some of the pivotal music that helped shape Texas Scratch and most obviously, ZZ Top. Jim even shares an incredible tale of how Billy F. Gibbons officiated his wedding! By the end of the chat, I was very interested to hear what tune from the new record he would chose to build a setlist around and what other tunes/artists he’d combine to build that set. Always insightful and this was no less. At the time of this call, the Dallas Cowboys & Green Bay Packers had yet to play their playoff game, we share a quick ‘good luck’ to each other, and he once again, has a story of meeting some leGends of the game down in big D.
