The Wabash Cannonballs Press Release Bio

The trio of personas that make up The Wabash Cannonballs rallied together to cut their teeth in the local old man dive taverns of Chicago performing music of a kind 30 years before their time. Tunes to the likes of Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf & Robert Nighthawk filled their resume. Soon, the gigs began to pile up almost as fast as their discarded empty beer cans & bottles of the cheapest nature. Opening for such acts as David Allen Coe, Alvin Youngblood Heart, Unknown Hinson, Waylon’s boy, Shooter Jennings & a number of Chicago favorites.

Their Bukowski type debauchery has also been seen across the Atlantic in the UK where they have performed two successful tours as of date.

With front man Gary Camaro’s Jagermeister howl & sermonizing slide guitar backed by the rhythmic chaos of Tom Foolery’s thunder of bass & battlefield drumming displayed by Jonny Two Socks, the inspiration swept your friends, The Cannonballs, to write a score of diverse original material ranging from their passion for deep electric blues, classic honky tonk & rip roaring, shit kicking, turn over the tables, go home with the waitress rock & roll music. The way their forefathers would have wanted.

Thus creating their debut album “DISRAELI BEERS” whose compilation of anthems, ditties, hymns & lullabies have been compared to the great musical stylings of The Leroy Fix, Vax Wallo & the Wingnuts. Introducing a new proposal upon a new generation of drunkards,

“Ask not, what your country can drink for you.
Ask what you can drink for your country!”

Disraeli Beers Reviewed by Brandon Whitehead of www.EKC.com

One of the best (and worst) things about being a music critic is that magical moment when a new pre-broken jewel case is freed from its puffy brown mailing packet to reveal a brand new album just waiting for a seal of approval (or horrific disapproval, that works too) from yours truly.

Sometimes the album comes in a glossy packet with a huge press release featuring dozens of rave reviews from all over. Others might have a simple hand written note from the manager/roadie/sound guy/lead singer sayin’ “Hey, man, thanks for listening!”

Without doubt the band known as the Wabash Cannonballs (has to mean something…) falls in the later category. With a rock and roll sound refined by smoky dive bars and drunken poetry, these three are playing for the sheer love of the music, and man, does it show.

Just to make it interesting, these boys would seem to love it all, switching from the goofy (“The Stalker Song”) to the funky (“Throat Fire Psychology”) without missing a beat, and if they do, who cares?

On lead vocals, Gary Camaro growls admirably through the eleven songs on their second album Disraeli Beers, while Tom Foolery and Jonny Two Socks (probably not real names) thump out the bass and percussion respectively and with simple honest gusto that makes you want to grab a beer, pull up a stool and sing along. After all, how can anyone resist lines like “Keep the bugs off yer glass and Smokey off yer ass” from “The Big 10-4”?

In an age when most musicians define themselves by their haircuts, it’s damn nice to hear that somebody out there is still more interested in getting’ up their and belting out one more song in a warm bar on a cold night in the middle of a dark and lonely city.

So slide one of those beers over here boys, whatever name you wanna call it.

—Brandon Whitehead (posted 12/14/07)