Jimmy Regal And The Royals – Late Night Chicken: Album Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 23rd September 2020 • ( Leave a comment )

Jimmy Regal And The Royals kick up a chicken inspired storm of blues and grooves..You can’t turn it down.

Release Date: 25th September 2020

Format: CD

It’s hard to beat the electricity of a howling blues three piece. Preferably with a pint in your hand in as intimate a venue you can manage. And possibly with a fight breaking out in the background.

Combining a love of Southern US roots culture and the South London food culture, recorded on a Thames side boat that shifted with the tides, the ditties on Late Night Chicken are at the heart of Pub Rock and run down juke joints.

Housed in a familiar red and white livery, guitarist CJ Williams has made the observation that “there are no bad chicken songs.” An interesting theory that could spark an interesting debate down your local. Meanwhile, Joff Watkins’ harmonica takes centre stage to honk its way through a set that thankfully doesn’t take the chicken theme to the limits.

It’s all about bare bones and grinding down on a suitably raw riff, probably while chowing down on a suitably cooked drumstick. From the title track which does exactly that to more down and dirty, rustic and organic, swampy and overdriven blues-tinged excursions.

This is a trio that you feel could easily cook up grooves all day long, yet Regal Alley adds another string to the bow, being built on a quivering atmosphere. Perfect to add to the visual of tumbleweed bouncing through a one-horse town as two gunslingers get set for a showdown. And then suddenly the jiving twang and drum rumble of an irresistible foot-tapper takes over. All lead drums and jagged guitar injections.

We head right back to the feel of Sun Studios for a lo-fi take on That’s All It Took and indulge in a bit of a jam on Can’t Cry No More – typical drowning your sorrows in the bottom of a glass stuff. However, it’s the run of three minute fireworks at the back end of the record that reminds us what makes this trio tick. If it ain’t broken why fix it and that’s the lifeblood of what Jimmy Regal And The Royals offer on this bucketful of blues.

Listen to Late Night Chicken here: