Thats All I Need

Rock Em Dead

Chicken House

Ace Of Spades

Collins Mambo

All My Whole Life

That's All I Need

Lead me on

shake your money maker

watch and chain

body and fender man

Review:  The blues and R&B are a natural fit, and nobody does it better than Johnny Ticktin and his Headhunters.  Ticktin was the lead guitar player with Louisiana Red, who won multiple BMA awards, and has now released his 8th album with his Headhunters.  None of these tunes are originals, but that doesn’t matter because Ticktin and his band breathe new life into these standards and truly make them their own, starting with their version of the title track, originally recorded by Magic Sam back in 1967.  The band also has some amazing guest musicians on this album, including Tam Sullivanon keys for “Lead Me On” and Liz Springer (Built for Comfort) on vocals for “Watch and Chain (Hey Gyp).”  Ticktin even gets to showcase his amazing guitar riffs on Link Wray‘s instrumental “Ace of Spades,” as well as throughout this amazing collection that truly pays homage to some of the biggest and baddest to ever play the blues, rockabilly or garage rock, including Chet Atkins, Lowell Fulson, Elmore James and Albert Collins.
Recommendation:  If you love guitar, the blues, rockabilly or just love great music, then this one is for you.  Go Get it.  


http://www.elmoremagazine.com/2018/08/reviews/albums/johnny-the-headhunters

Johnny & The Headhunters
That’s All I Need

August 23rd, 2018
There’s more to Johnny Ticktin than meets the eye. Well-versed in the blues, having once served as lead guitar player for the legendary Louisiana Red, the open-minded Ticktin is a sponge, soaking up the subtle six-string nuances and intricacies of a multitude of genres—from surf to classic R&B, swing and even Mambo—on his eighth album with The Headhunters, That’s All I Need. It would feel right at home in any rough-and-tumble roadhouse.

The title is borrowed from a song, covered here in all its dark, swampy glory, off Magic Sam’s 1967 iconic electric blues marvel West Side Soul. Watery, backwoods ripples of Sam’s tremolo guitar style and seductive rhythms meander through Creedence Clearwater Revival’s mysterious kudzu on Johnny & The Headhunters’ version, as Ticktin and company paddle up a lazy river of Bayou groove. Just as fluent in nasty rockabilly, they thrive in the sweltering heat of the 1957 obscurity “Chicken House,” giving it a warm buzz and making it rumble and swagger, while the lascivious, infectious funk of “Body and Fender” – a Doc Pomus/Duke Robillard joint originally built for soul crooner Johnny Adams – shakes all over and ogles the female form. A rousing, boogie-woogie version of Lowell Fulsom’s Chess Records’ hit “Rock ‘Em Dead” is wonderfully shambolic, and Ticktin rides the lightning of the Link Wray instrumental “Ace of Spaces” like a champ, gleefully wheeling through edgy garage-rock riffs with appropriate vim and vigor. What feel he and his band have for this material. There is not the slightest bit of indifference to it anywhere on this record.

Not that they need it, but help arrives in the form of keyboardist Tam Sullivan, who wraps smoky, sensual organ and wraiths of piano around a soulful remake of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Lead Me On,” and singer Liz Springer, who joins her brazen vocals to Ticktin’s in the cheeky, but charming, duet “Watch and Chain.” And, with the solid machinery of a good backing band at work behind him, Ticktin can just let loose – witness the slide-guitar fury of their cover of Elmore James’ “Shake Your Money Maker.” For aficionados of tasteful guitar work and music that time shouldn’t have forgotten, this is what you need.

—Peter Lindblad

johnny T