Lucky 7\nReverend Horton Heat\nArtemis Records\nLast weekend I was at a bar in town listening to a couple of strummers on stage playing the light-headed pop favorites of the day and thinking about how much I would give just to see an Elvis impersonator on that stage playing "Mystery Train" or "Milkcow Blues Boogie." I just wanted to hear the force that great rock and roll has. With real rock, no matter who you are, a greek out to get drunk or just someone who likes music, you cannot deny the power.\nI've got nothing against bar bands, but I hate to see acts that dehumanize music. They transform the incontrovertible magic in great rock into a mechanical deed. It doesn't really matter how fast and loud they strum, the truth that is displayed when playing great rock and roll is not something that can be faked.\nThis is the frame of mind I was in when I put on Reverend Horton Heat's latest album, not dejected at the state of rock, just feeling a bit alienated from it. I must admit that this was my first exposure to the Reverend, and without a bit of sarcasm I can say I was converted.\nLucky 7 is not an art record, it's not even a great rock record, it was just a record that has come along at the right time to revitalize my faith in the great rock and roll stage act. This is essentially what the band is -- they played 220 shows in 2001. The vision of this barn-burning act criss-crossing the States, playing totally raucous music, touring under a name with obvious religious connotations and singing about cocaine, tequila, women and automobiles was too much. I wanted to know where to sign up.\nComparing Reverend Horton Heat to swing revivalist Brian Setzer is an unfair pigeonhole. Rev's music takes as much from swing as it does from the Sex Pistols, the Beach Boys and Jerry Lee Lewis. Jim Heath (the Rev) sounds like an evangelist for debauchery, and his two-piece rhythm section perfectly sets up his presence and his surf-style guitar.\nIt seems to me that the records only tell half of the Reverend Horton Heat's story. They are the truest to the rock and roll spirit I've heard in a long time. They are completely unpretentious, and rock harder than Blink-182 or Metallica ever dreamed of.\n
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