(rockabilly, rock'n'roll, oldies) VA - Teen-Age Mafia - 1999, FLAC (tracks), lossless

This is one of Buffalo Bop's better triumphs: 30 songs of late 1950s and early 1960s teenage life, most seemingly out of the South and West and by performers who were, on the whole, ready to record, and (based on the evidence here) truly poised for stardom -- Jacky Lee Cochran may even have made it onto television, to judge from two still included. In contrast to many other Buffalo Bop releases, there aren't many overt imitators here -- mostly it's just guys trying for a sound of their own. "Happy Jack" by Sammy Spencer is typical: a piece of hillbilly rock & roll that was probably a little too backwoods to get much of a hearing outside of his immediate environment. Tommy "Jim" Beam's unissued "Bay Rum Rock" is one of the most raucous numbers here and probably would've made enough of a noise to get some radio play if it had made it out the door. "Till I Waltz with You Again" and "But in a Million Years" by Bill Reeder (who had surprisingly long hair, to judge from the photo included) and George Ritchie, respectively, show off the relatively lyrical and not too derivative sounds here, tuneful hard rock & roll with a country flavor -- indeed, Reeder isn't too far from Buddy Holly's sound. Bobby Kent's "Don't Go 'way" pounds away a little bit like Jerry Lee Lewis, but that's as derivative as it gets, and he sings with more class. Angie and the Monoco's "Sad as I Can Be" is one of the better pieces of sax-driven rock & roll in the whole Buffalo Bop line, with some pretty powerful drumming driving the song as well and a piano coming in for some real variety after the break -- they're among the artists here who definitely deserved a better hearing than they got. This also includes "Snaggle Tooth Ann" by Gene Norman (one assumes, not the jazz entrepreneur and founder of GNP-Crescendo Records). One piece of Holly-related material here is David Box's cut of the Roy Orbison-Joe Melson "I've Had My Moment" for Candix Records -- Box (1943-1964) was one of Sonny Curtis' successors in the Crickets, and the lead singer on that group's version of "Peggy Sue Got Married." He's also one of the more mature and sophisticated singers here -- still a rocker, but closer to the Orbison of that era than to Orbison's Sun period. The Keytones are, similarly, an utterly professional outfit with a healthy mix of loud guitars, smooth vocals, and a great beat of "La-Do-Da-Da." The Daarts are a little jokier, with their deliberately nasal-lead vocals fronting some decent harmony singing and some surf-style guitar on the break of "Cut Me Up." The Jiv a Tones' "Fire Engine Baby" is a pretty cool account of teen lust, mixing a doo-wop style background with some virtually unamplified guitars, and one guy doing (yep) fire engine siren impressions. ~ Bruce Eder