Guestlist

After a handful of releases that toed the line of straightforward rockabilly, eschewing the foreboding punker stuff for something more genteel and congenial (you could say they got Stray Cat style), Guest List sees Cigar Store Indians branching out to hit upon all manner of nostalgic niceties on live material culled from two Georgia tour stops. The result is an homage to the era of poodle skirts and liking Ike, from the country-fried "Eagles Need a Push" to the Alan Freed-approved "Arms Around Me" to "Get on the Throttle," a track as thoroughly good as Thorogood's similar overtures. That said, there's still plenty of classic rockabilly to go around; disc finale "Ring of Fire" (featuring a Ramones snippet) shows that the y'alternative crowd can still champion the band as one of its own. ~ Brian O'Neill, Rovi