Jump, Jive an’ Wail Today!

It's the birthday today of an extremely talented musician and performer, and a guy who's made some ballsy moves in his career, Brian Setzer.  He's 56 today.

He started a rockabilly band in New York, and after little success with it convinced his bandmates to sell their instruments and buy one-way plane tickets to London to try it over there...while London was still kind of in the middle of "punk-fever."  Dave Edmunds took a liking to him and started producing their stuff, and The Stray Cats managed to come up with a few hits.  Then in the 90's he took a chance on reviving swing music, and managed to make that popular for a short time.  The music that The Brian Setzer Orchestra made was awesome in my opinion, and it opened the door for copycat bands to make a living at it for a while.

By the way, he's coming to Cedar Rapids in June for a show (with George Thorogood) and it should be a great time!  He won't even  have to travel far since he currently lives in Minneapolis.  But on his birthday I definitely salute you Stray Cats fans!  Maybe something from them on the Punch-Out today...?  Hmmm...