Spills and Thrills
Studio album by John Paul Keith & The One Four Fives
Released 2009
Recorded 2009
Genre Rock
Length 36:43
Label Big Legal Mess
Producers John Paul Keith, Kevin Cubbins
Spills and Thrills is the first solo album by John Paul Keith, a brilliant singer-songwriter and blistering guitarist. Before launching his solo career, he played in The V-Roys, The Nevers, Ryan Adams' Pink Hearts, Stateside, Harlan T. Bobo, Jack Oblivian, and Jim Dickinson's garage rock project, Snake Eyes.
Professional Ratings:
allmusic 4/5 stars
The Skinny 4/5 stars
Review by Hal Horowitz of allmusic:
Telecaster-wielding John Paul Keith has been rattling around the fringes of the roots rock arena since around 1994. He has racked up hundreds of smoking shows with a variety of outfits including the V-Roys, one of his earliest, with little to show for it. The Knoxville, TN based guitarist/vocalist moved operations to Memphis in 2005, took a few years to put together a solid band of like-minded musicians who understood his gutsy take on rock, soul, and country, and finally released this debut disc in 2009. It's a rollicking set of garagy rock & roll, rockabilly, country, swamp, and surf with just enough of that indescribably Memphis mojo to bring soul into the equation too. Retro enthusiasts will recognize strains of Creedence, the early Beatles, and any number of rockers with dashes of Farfisa and a loose-limbed twang to their sound. Just when it seems everything that can be accomplished with three chords has already been done, Keith comes along and tears into a dozen originals that, while not exactly reinventing the wheel, will fill the '50s linoleum dancefloor for a half-hour. He sports an unassuming voice, somewhat like Jerry Lee Lewis, and his band, especially keyboardist Al Gamble, finds that elusive Sun records energy so difficult to capture in other cities. There can't help but be a retro quality to this music, but Keith and band never simply mimic their musical influences. The songs rumble and rock led by Keith's choppy Telecaster, and even when he obviously rips off a few licks on the peppy "She'll Dance to Anything" (from the Champs' "Tequila"), his contagious vibe is so swinging that you won't care. The album's one instrumental, "Cookie Bones," sounds like a mash-up of every cool Booker T. & the MG's tune, and the rollicking "Pure Cane Sugar" does a terrific job echoing the Beatles trying to be Larry Williams. When the closing rocker "Doin' the Devils Work" rolls around only 36 minutes after the disc began, you'll wish there was more. That's the sign of a keeper, and even though it took too long to get here, hopefully there is more where this came from.
Review by Andrew Dowdall on The Line of Best Fit:
If somehow you were to find John Paul Keith appearing, Zelig-like, lurking in the background of old photos of Sun Studio recording sessions; he would certainly fit right in seamlessly with Carl, Elvis, Johnny, Roy, and Jerry Lee. Looking like a cross between Buddy Holly and Robin Gibb, he plays simple but effective guitar (the best kind) and hollers with the nasal whine of a young teddy boy John Lennon (OK Ð perhaps with a bit of the quiver in the voice of Georgie Harrison from time to time if you want to split Beatles hairs). Notwithstanding everything thatÕs happened since, if you still get a little tingle down the back of the neck whenever you hear the opening staccato yell of ÔRave OnÕ, then this is for you. John Paul Keith just missed out on success as a part of earlier combos a couple of times during his career, and was a member of one of Ryan Adams early backing bands too (he plays on Demolition), before practically giving up on music making after becoming frustrated with a mire of business-related shenanigans. But now heÕs back with a debut solo-ish album, based in Memphis, and plugging away at gigs across the central states.
Review on Nine Bullets:
Some times good things happen to the bands that deserve them and such is the case with John Paul Keith and his One Four Fives out of Memphis, Tenn. Having recently signed with Fat Possum records imprint, Big Legal Mess Records, they are now set to release their debut LP, Spills & Thrills.
Building on a more Jerry Lee Lewis than Elvis 50Õs rock and roll sound, John Paul and Co. seem hellbent on putting the roll back into rock-n-roll. The upbeat and innocent feel to this album is a welcome sound to my ears in these troubled times.
Personally, I wish this sound would start to see a revival. ItÕll never come out of Nashvegas, though, and perhaps thatÕs why John Paul Keith packed his shit and left that town for the not-so-neon lights of Memphis a few years back. Hooking up with M. Edgar Stuart (bass), Kevin Cubbins (guitar), Al Gamble (piano) John Whittemore (pedal steel, and guitar) and John Argroves (drums), the band started writing original songs all the while earning the reputation of one of the fiercest bar bands in Memphis.
Now, thanks to Big Legal Mess, the rest of us get to hear what all the fuss is about. IÕd say theyÕre worthy of all the hubbub, Spills & Thrills is Essential Listening.
Review by Ewen Millar on The Skinny:
John Paul Keith & The One Four Fives are a psychedelic garage-rock band masquerading as Memphis country-blues. Despite their own insistence that they're a good-time rock 'n' roll band forged in the fires of beer joints and dives around Memphis, the liberal sprinking of surf-guitar and psychedelic organ on Spills and Thrills takes them to a range of places (including, bizarrely, close to the stoner rock of Josh Homme). Even when they are doing their best to hit more traditional country beats, the originality that they bring to their music forces them out of the genre's straitjacket, as on Second Hand Heart, which offsets Nashville convention with the off-kilter military drumbeat that propels it forward. This band obviously have the musical background and talent to make a living as a professional live act, but their subtle weaving of other genres into the beer-soaked sound of their debut LP creates a tapestry that suggests a trajectory above and beyond mullets and rednecks.
Biographical Information:
John Paul Keith grew up outside of Knoxville, the son of a truck driver. He learned to sing in church and he learned to play guitar when he was ten and his father gave him an acoustic and a copy of Chuck BerryÕs Golden Hits and The Best of B.B. King. It was the first music he ever heard that wasnÕt country or spiritualsÑhe didnÕt hear the Beatles until he was nearly in high school. By the time he was seventeen, he was drawing big crowds in Knoxville as a member of the Viceroys, and then quit the band when they signed an indie deal because he didnÕt like the direction the music was headed. By twenty-one, he had moved to Nashville and formed his own band, and got signed to a major label within months. It was a meteoric rise by a kid everyone in the industry had their eyes onÑand wanted their hooks in.
John Paul Keith can sum up the rest in just a few lines. He tells you nearly everything you need to know about him in the first thirty seconds of Spills and Thrills, his freewheeling 2009 debut, featuring songs so timeless and well crafted youÕd swear they were obscure 50's or 60's B-sides. Over a swinging drumbeat and a stinging Telecaster, Keith sings, ÒWell, IÕm right on the money, but IÕm never on time / One step ahead, two steps behind / And IÕve never been lucky, and IÕve never been hip / Got a whole lotta headaches when I opened my lip.Ó
Though the loyal following who pack his Memphis shows might beg to differ about never being hip, truer words have never been sung. Blessed and cursed with rare talent and common Southern stubbornness, Keith would have gone a lot further in the music industry if he only had a little less brains and a lot less integrity. A blistering guitarist and singer, and the kind of songwriter who makes great melodies and incredible lyrics sound effortless, he certainly seems like a sure thingÑthe kind of artist you just need to hit play and record on and let rip.
Instead, Keith spent more than a decade at near constant odds with band mates, managers and executives eager to water down and compromise his music in order to chase the latest trend. Relocating from Knoxville to Nashville, New York to Birmingham, and back again, Keith struggled to stick to his guns and create the kind of music that would hold up to the records that made him want to play music in the first place. By 2005, heÕd had about enough. Alone, with no band and no prospects, he moved to Memphis and declared himself washed-up at 29.
Somebody should have told John Paul Keith that Memphis is the wrong place to go if youÕre looking to give up music. A veritable island of great musicians and music lovers, with a scene that is dismissively and blissfully oblivious to the obsessive flights of the music industry, the city is an outsiderÕs paradise. Before he knew it, he was writing songs again.
He also fell in love with the guitar again, and soon started hanging around TaylorÕs Music store in midtown Memphis, where he met drummer John Argroves and bassist Mark E. Stuart. The nascent band decided to play some covers together in a local dive, and before long had added organist and piano player Al Gamble. Taking their name from the I-IV-V musical progression that forms the foundation of blues and rock and roll, the newly named One Four Fives gave Keith the one thing he was missing for all those years: A group of sympathetic musicians who could match his talentÑand his integrity. They brought power and muscle to KeithÕs songs, but stayed true to the spirit of his influences.
The band built a loyal following in MemphisÑboth from fans, and from the cityÕs close-knit scene. John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives built a reputation as one of MemphisÕ most ferocious bar bandsÑcapable of delivering two, three, even four hour sets of blistering, beerspilling rock and roll. With this spirit of open-minded acceptance, support and encouragement, so special to Memphis, Keith began to write the best songs of his life. In addition to releasing Spills And Thrills, Keith went on to tour the States opening for Memphis' own Lucero, and then to Europe with garage-punk legend Jack Oblivian. 2009 and 2010 kept the One Four Fives busy in Memphis as well, releasing the Live At The Hi-Tone CD and two seven inch-singles.
The story continues in 2011 with The Man That Time Forgot, KeithÕs sophomore album for Big Legal Mess Records. Part of the legendary Fat Possum family that championed and gave a home to such artists as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, Big Legal Mess is proudly preparing The Man That Time Forgot for a June release. The album, which was produced by Fat Possum veteran Bruce Watson, captures the spirit and energy of the One Four FivesÕ live shows, but explores a wider range of themes and influences Ð echoes of Tex-Mex, garage rock, countripolitan, mid-60's soul/pop, blistering rockabilly, and even Mose Allison's brand of jazz-blues. ItÕs around about the third listen the realization comes: These songs are incredible. From the Sir Douglas-like opener, ÒNever Could Say NoÓ, to the wry, closing-time waltz, ÒThe Last Last CallÓ, this is the work of an amazing songwriter, and a bold step forward with an even broader scope than before. So if youÕre looking for one of the best records of the year,here it is. It took John Paul Keith half his life to get the chance to be himself, but it was worth the wait.
LP track listing
All songs written by John Paul Keith except as noted.
Side One
1. "Lookin' For a Thrill" - 2:29
2. "Pure Cane Sugar" - 2:31
3. "Secondhand Heart" - 3:14
4. "She'll Dance to Anything" - 3:17
5. "Cookie Bones" (John Paul Keith, Al Gamble, Kevin Cubbins, Mark E. Stuart, John Argroves) - 3:33
6. "Let's Get Gone" - 3:26
Side Two
7. "Smoke in a Bottle" - 3:18
8. "Otherwise" - 2:14
9. "Rock n Roll Will Break Your Heart" - 3:03
10. "If I Were You" - 2:41
11. "Too Hip" - 4:26
12. "Doin' the Devil's Work" - 2:31
Personnel:
* John Paul Keith - guitar, vocals
* Mark E. Stuart - bass, vocals
* Kevin Cubbins - guitar, vocals
* John Argroves - drums
* John Whittemore - guitar, pedal steel, baritone
* Al Gamble - piano, organ
* Adam Woodard - piano on "If I Were You"