Do you like your Rock n Roll dirty, primitive and stripped down, with a side of trashy blues and gritty stomping beat? You’ll be as chuffed as we were when we heard that cult artist Vince Ray had ditched his backing and released new music as a ‘One Man Bandit’. ‘Back In The Shack’ is half an hour of full power sound bursting from the heart and booming from the Delta via a lifetime of brewing art and music.

Even as we open with one of the more ‘Rock N Roll’ numbers, ‘Rocket USA’, we get a sense that this is an incredibly distilled sound, as if Ray’s put all his deepest influences into a vat, applied heat and emerged with musical Moonshine. How a track can sound so pure and essential in the middle of all the distortion is a mystery, but the absolute back-to-basics raw spirit that fuels ‘Back To The Shack’ is what makes it so magic. Whether it’s through the upbeat, shoulder-shuffling ‘Slow Down’ or the lingering tinges of ‘Midnite Creep’, there’s such a clarity under all the dirt and grime that’s compelling.

Of course, there’s going to be favourite tracks in every lineup. The last time we heard ‘Everybody Smokes In Hell’, it was back in 2011 during his time as a Boneshaker. Now, it’s got the pared-down treatment with surprisingly pretty guitar breakdowns. His ‘Bo Diddley Dance’ slaps with Cramps energy and a genuine love of the musicians who inspired him, and ‘Maybelline’ has such a gritty, demo feel that would slot into the best Jukebox in the world.

Vince Ray’s lost nothing by making a solo record. If anything, he’s gained a way to share his voodoo in its purest, grittiest and most sincere form.

Kate Allvey

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