Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers – Drive to Survive (1997)

1 	Drive To Survive 	4:09
2 	You Got Work To Do 	4:17
3 	That's How I Feel 	5:06
4 	All About My Girl	4:32
5 	Play To Win 	4:19
6 	Cool Guitars	3:44
7 	Slow Down Baby 	3:50
8 	Long, Lean & Lanky 	3:33
9 	Burford's Bop 	4:09
10 	Rub On Up 	4:12
11 	Apache		3:58

Jimmy Thackery – vocals, guitar
Mark Stutso – drums, guitar (1,3,8)
Michael Patrick – bass

On Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers, Drive To Survive (Blind Pig 5035; 60:43) the guitar hero-bandleader taps into a Hendrixian blues-rock vibe with distortion licks and lots of wah-wah. The results are often exhilarating, as on the jumped-up John Lee Hooker-influenced boogie number "You Got Work To Do," Jimmy McGriff's driving shuffle "All About My Girl" and the soulful ballad "That's How I Feel." This stripped-down guitar-bass-drums format (with minimal guitar overdubs) suits Thackery well. He cuts loose with wild abandon on "Play To Win," reprises a classic surf guitar instrumental from the early '60s in "Apache" and even has a go with a jazzy uptempo swinger in "Burford's Bop," a style pioneered by players like T-Bone Walker and Tiny Grimes and perpetuated by modern-day players like Duke Robillard and Charlie Baty. But Thackery makes the biggest impression here when he gets raunchy and screams with a vengeance, as on "Rub On Up." ---Bill Milkowski, jazztimes.com

Put your seat belt on before you "drive" this one. Thackery lets loose on both guitar and vocals here, with a solid, screaming set of originals and a handful of covers. Although it probably wasn't the intention, Drive to Survive quickly became synonymous with "Apache," the jungle drum-flavored surf instrumental that Thackery included simply because he "wanted to do a surf tune that no one had messed with." In reality, more than 20 artists had recorded the Ventures tune by the time Drive to Survive was released. Nonetheless, it served as a much-requested anthem of sorts in Thackery's live shows for years to come. "All About My Girl" is a Jimmy McGriff-meets-Albert Collins instrumental, and "Burford's Bop" is high-energy swing. Thackery delivers tough, gritty vocals on the JL Hooker/ZZ Top-style "You Got Work to Do." The bluesiest offering, "Rub On Up," features some serious guitar licks and has lyrics that could make just about anyone blush. The real gem on Drive to Survive, though, is the ballad "That's How I Feel." Drummer Mark Stutso handles the vocals, and both the song and the singing are superb. ---Ann Wickstrom, allmusic.com

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