GEORGIA SATELLITES: Lightnin’ In A Bottle (2022)

Crazy to think that it’s already been 31 years since Dan Baird fired himself from the Georgia Satellites. His own words not mine!

Even crazier is the fact that it took 34 years for an Official Live Satellites album to hit the streets!!

Better late than never says “I”

This show has been released since March of this year to the streaming sites and CD (gah!). As of July 8th the album is now out on the supreme form of VINYL!

Recorded back in December ’88 in Cleveland this 18 song set ass kicker delivers on all fronts on what I love about these guys. First of all this recording is 110% LIVE!

The guitars are cranked as the bass and drums just steamroll from the start of the album to the finish. Having three guy’s who could sing as well was an added plus as well.

These boys are just straight ahead  barroom boogie rock at it’s finest as they lift off with Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin Going On” and from there its a take no prisoners approach in delivering the goods live so to speak.

The real cool selling point is how they would fuse their tunes and sneak in classics  without skipping a beat and thats the charm of these guys.

They can slam you right in the ball sack with “Railroad Steel”(Dan even sings a few lines of “Highway To Hell” at the end) yet shift gears and blast off with “Hippy Hippy Shake” (which came out in ’88 as single thanks to that shitty movie “Cocktail”)

Dan Baird is a crafty lyricist (one of my fav’s actually) as he can tell a story in a tune and you can hear him strumming that telecaster like he’s the Boss.

Speaking of crafty lyrics check out “Down And Down” or “Sheila” for reference points.

Baird’s counterpart on guitar Rick Richards plays some stellar leads and slide as well. Check out “Can’t Stand The Pain”  as Richards not delivers some stellar slide but tosses out a cool lead vocal as well.

Drummer Mauro Magallen keeps the band tight as he pounds those drum skins almost like if Ringo Starr was on speed!

Not to be outdone Rick Price plays a ton of great walking bass lines and can even dial it in on lead vocals at times as Rick does with the Joe South cover of “Games People Play” which ended up on ’89’s “In The Land of Salvation And Sin” album.

These guys knew there strengths and the amazing thing is they could get away with almost half the show of cover tunes as of course there is the HIT as they say in the form of  “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” yet they take it further and jam out The Stones “It’s Only Rock N Roll” and make it  fun.

Crank the vid below…

 

Better yet they even close the show with a one two punch of The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” mixed with a healthy dose of Bill Haley’s “Shake Rattle And Roll” delivered with the amps cranked to 11!

These guys can take the Raunch and make it Roll which you can listen though the grooves on this album as you hear  the  monitor feed backing and being that it was close to Christmas ’88 they smash out Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run.”

Nothing serious here folk’s…

Now if you have never really checked the guys out before other than just hearing the HIT so too speak then this is a great starting point. If you have one or all three of there studio records than this is a must own!

deKe’s Vinyl Rating- 10/10

Does not get better than this!

“Baby I got my finger right on your pulse
Poundin’ just like a drum
I need a little bit of Coca Cola
I need me a shot of Ron Rico one fifty one”