This Shakin’ House – catl. (2014)

Final Rating: 7.5/10

Toronto area band catl. is back with their fourth album release, This Shakin’ House, which is out April 29^th. The self described band bio of them states “Once a duo, then a trio and now a duo again” which has settled on a lineup consisting of founding member Jamie Fleming and his partner Sarah Kirkpatrick who joined the band on their second album With The Lord For Cowards You Will Find No Place. Now that drummer Andrew Moszynski has left the band the deck chairs have been shuffled a bit to keep their music sounding full. Fleming, who goes by the stage name catl., still is rocking his acoustic and steel guitar’s harder than Pete Seeger ever thought was possible and Kirkpatrick plays a drum to keep the beat and a tambourine to get people in the mood to dance.

Lamplight The Way opens the album with a fuzzed out delta blues beat about hitting the road and going back to Memphis. If you are familiar with the blues tradition in the Deep South, it all makes sense. The song has a punk like intensity with Fleming’s low growl mixed with Kirkpatrick’s high pitched yelps, it makes for a fast and furious whisky tune that clocks in under two and a half minutes.

If you ever wished that The Rolling Stones didn’t separate their early blues and later country sounds, then this album is for you. They slowed the beat down with Resistance Place, which sees Kirkpatrick taking the lead vocals and an organ backbeat. You can imagine this coming over the jukebox in a dive bar and seeing a woman swinging her hips slowly and while it builds up to her throwing her whole body into it during the chorus.

The album was recorded in Memphis at Ardent Studios, which inspired their first song, and mixed at Ghetto Recorders in Detroit. The resulting influences caused a really grimey album to be created with all the music being blasted out of retro lo-fi amps into 24-Track recording devices. The end product sounds like it could be from the 1950’s, it has intensity and intimacy and every grainy background noise is calculated.

Listening to lead single Gateway Blues, you could swear it was a Muddy Waters cover with a traditional delta beat that people like Robert Johnson and Buddy Guy made famous. At this point if you are not dancing, you are a lost cause for traditional Americana music. Songs that include harmonica give the album a fuller sound, which were performed by Pete Ross and Dan Kroha for the album. Live, Fleming plays harmonica sparsely since he is the main vocalist.

Album highlights include Dead Water Disco, which features The Band like rising harmonies and a more straightforward rock beat mixed with a Stones like breakdown. Other standouts include Hold My Body Down, which includes a simple guitar line Jack White wishes he could have came up with. Fleming’s simple and unflashy playing style suits him perfectly with the focus more on the groove than the intricacies of showing off.

While their music doesn’t really fit in traditional radio genres, one listen and you know they are the real deal and every time I have shared their music a new fan is born.

catl. is having a record release party next Thursday April 24^th at The Horseshoe Tavern with Montreal singer Bloodshot Bill and the Mad Ones also on the ticket. Tickets are only $10 and can be purchased online or at Soundscapes and Rotate This. If you are unable to make the record release show, catl. is also playing a CMW showcase on May 8^th at The Garrison.