Detroit Cobras Tied & True CD

Classic British hard rock album from 1983. Special digi package. Personally signed by UFO/Waysted legend Pete Way!

The Detroit Cobras: Mary Ramirez (guitar); Carol Anne Schumacher (bass instrument); Kenny Tudrick (drum); Greg Cartwright, Rachel Nagy.
Personnel: Rachel Nagy (vocals, piano); Kenny Tudrick (guitar, drums); Greg Cartwright (guitar, percussion); Eddie Hawrysch (piano); Ryan Pritts (timpani, background vocals); Jeliana Frelitz (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Rachel Nagy; John Smerek.
Recording information: The White Room, Detroit, MI.
Photographer: Christopher Chouinard.
Continuing their string of albums mashing up garagey punk attitude, sweet girl-group vocals, and a dedicated crate digger's fondness for obscure 1960s R&B, the Detroit Cobras' TIED AND TRUE is guaranteed to please their fans. Lead singer Rachel Nagy's Shangri Las-derived vocal style drips with attitude on old favorites such as "Leave My Kitten Alone" (a mainstay of the Beatles' Cavern Club days), "Puppet On A String," and "Nothing But A Heartache." Even the reworking of the vintage folk tune "On A Monday" is laced with lo-fi fuzz and Motor City grit. As burning hot as ever, the Detroit Cobras maintain their winning streak.
The Detroit Cobras have built an international reputation from mining their estimable record collection for raw and emphatic R&B tunes and giving them a hard, sweaty reinterpretation dominated by hard-edged guitars, but they've turned things down a few notches on their fourth album, Tied & True. Though Tied & True once again features the Cobras running through a baker's dozen of soulful chestnuts (and say what you will, but this band knows a great song when they hear one), the attack is more subtle this time out, and the more measured approach serves them well. The band still knows how to deliver the rock & roll goods, but guitarists Mary Ramirez and Greg Cartwright (the latter on loan from Reigning Sound) aim less for sonic overkill than giving vocalist Rachel Nagy a proper backdrop for her passionate, throaty vocals, and the results are more soulful and satisfying than what the band came up with on 2005's Baby. Similarly, drummer Kenny Tudrick doesn't shy away from the Big Beat, but also drives these arrangements with imagination that's less about bash and more about groove. Greg Cartwright didn't produce this set like he did on Baby, but his influence is clearly felt on this music, which boasts more of a Southern sense of rhythm and heart than the Detroit Cobras' earlier albums and recalls the rollicking but passionate tone of his best work with Reigning Sound. And Rachel Nagy is in great form on these sessions, filling these tunes with emotional energy while creating a sultry sense of mystery on the slower numbers. Folks looking for a re-creation of the Detroit Cobras' rowdy live shows might be thrown at first by Tied & True's more low-key attack, but the results are soul satisfying music that ranks with their best studio work to date. ~ Mark Deming

Spin (p.85) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[They] act like irreverent archivists rather than slavish imitators, grabbing lost-to-history sides by girl groups like the Cookies and boy groups like the Beatles..."
No Depression (pp.89-90) - "[T]hey're still uncovering little-known gems and injecting them with a blast of punky garage rock."