Black Diamond Heavies and Mississippi Mudsharks Stomp All Over You

So maybe this is what Blue Öyster Cult meant by the red and the black. Mississippi Mudsharks’ Train Rolls On and Black Diamond Heavies' A Touch of Someone Else’s Class are both beat-your-face-in albums of the belligerent he-man blues-rock persuasion, and they also both sort of look alike! Red lettering on a black background -- especially on the album back covers, each of which is a top-to-bottom list of 11 songs. The Mudsharks’ front has a locomotive and the Heavies’ a drum set, but hey, let’s not quibble, folks.

Mississippi Mudsharks are three hefty dudes from, well, San Diego, actually; their frontman Scottie Blinn calls himself “Mad Dog.” Guests help out on pedal steel (two songs) and “chain” (one). Their album-opening title track ain’t quite the “Train Kept a Rollin’” it wishes it was, and neither is the bleh ballad called “Slow Rollin’” they close with. But in between, they’ve got shuffles evolving into badass boogie (“30 Weight Shuffle”), bike-leather rockabilly (“Crimson Sky” and “Devil’s Road”), and some gratifying Black Oak Arkansas and ZZ Top tendencies, the latter most notably in “Throw It in the Hole.” Best song titles: “Lakeside Redneck Shindig,” “Zombie Whip,” “Can’t Put Down the Drink.”

Black Diamond Heavies, though generally pictured as just two guys, seem to be a trio on their new album as well – in this case, supposedly from "the Southern States of America," though they sure do play live in Ohio a lot. James Leg is credited with “vocals, bass keys, Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, tack piano, knife”; Van Campbell with “drum, vocal, do things”; U.S. Justice with “background mouth, maracas, life.” Helper-outers include Dan Auerbach from Black Keys (lending production assistance) and Ralph Carney from Tin Huey; cover versions include Nina Simone’s “Oh Sinnerman” (cabaret hell-blues salvaging its ludicrous Waits/Cave schtick with gothic proto-psych swirl à la the Doors or Animals), T-Model Ford’s “Take a Ride” (likewise kinda Doorsy due to trashy organ); and some pachyderm plotz all over Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits” (which Bob Seger did funkier).

Notable originals are plentiful: (1) “Everything Is Everything,” a big stomp from the swamp, grumbled in the manner of Jim Dandy or Dr. John or Dan McCafferty from Nazareth atop huge drums hip-hopping in the manner of Run-D.M.C.’s version of “Walk This Way”; (2) “Bidin’ My Time,” a jazz-leaning apparent chitlin' circuit ballad tribute to our new Vice President-Elect, moaned slow and low a la Satchmo via Waits again; (3) speed-swinging Australian-style bogan-rock gutpunch “Make Some Time”; (4) lo-fidelity Count Bishops/Dr. Feelgood pub-punk murderer “Numbers 22 (Balaam’s Wild Ass)”; (5) likewise pub-homicidal closing boogie “Happy Hour,” which concerns visiting either the "pawn shop" or "porn shop"; (6) “Loose Yourself,” one of the hardest-rocking songs I heard in all 2008; (7) and “Solid Gold,” which comes closer to “Train Kept a Rollin’” than anything on the (nonetheless quite good) Mudsharks’ album. Not necessarily in that order.