A chill was blowing through the aged wood doorway of the Blue Café in the old coastal town of Long Beach, California a few days into the New Year. On the stage were The L.A. King Pins. In the back was a beautiful statuesque blond named Mel, in hip hugging pants playing a small rudimentary drum kit. Standing, balanced on his bass, was Rich, a young man in tight jeans and rolled tee shirt, while a stocky looking fellow with a greased up hairdo in a burgundy dinner jacket known as The Kid was on vocals and guitar. These twenty something rockers were playing with almost reckless abandon, music that had been displaced by five generations, was burning and coursing through their veins.

"We got into this by backing an Elvis singer, The Kid explained.

"Mel and I started from there, she was the drummer and I was the guitar player. We were writing these songs and thought we could do this. So, a couple of line up changes and here we are." In response to a question about the size of the scene in Southern California, The Kid said, "It's big. It's never gone anywhere, because it has always been here, but it's growing. It's everywhere you go."


Every other Sunday, the Blue Café is having Church for the rockabilly / psycho-billy brethren. Quarterly they are doing Rockabilly Revenge, an all day all-star event. The New Year's show that was held January 5 featured such Rockabilly luminaries as Lee Rocker of the Stray Cats, Twenty Flight Rock and the Cat House Thumpers. Also represented were Long Beach's own Crown City Bombers. Another Long Beach local Brophy Dale who played on this chilly January night was recently featured in Guitar Player Magazine. The L.A. King Pins from the Valley and The Handsome Devils from San Diego are new kids breathing life into these retooled three-piece rock 'n' roll songs. Their music is brilliant and their playing is dazzling, sold with the conviction of hardened veterans.

Outside of the constant of the fifties look and references to the early rockabilly greats like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Johnny Burnette this sound has regenerated itself by bringing in fresh players and new attitudes. Since the fifties, this music has repeatedly found new audiences that buy into the honest simplicity, unencumbered with effects and nuances of trendy contemporary styles. This was the musical cornerstone that helped build the temple of all contemporary pop sounds.

The labyrinth of musical styles that trailed into the crossroads of black -blues/jazz- and country-western swing, paved the first main highway called rockabilly. It was Sun Studio's in Memphis, Tennessee, that Sam Phillips put Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis on the map in creating, or at least capitalizing on, the rock in rock 'n' roll. It is the simplicity of this music that still appeals to new audiences everywhere.

The "Singing Brakeman" Jimmie Rodgers may have been the first to actually record a rockabilly record back in the late 1920's with his Blue Yodel songs like, "T for Texas" and "No Hard Times." Later Hank Williams would shake it up with his music, songs like "Honky Tonken" and" Jambalaya."

However, when Phillips had Presley do the Bluegrass song of "Blue moon o'er Kentucky" with that jumping backbeat that was heard in blues records, history was made.

In doing research for this article this writer was amazed to the extent this music permeates the outer fringes of society. It is literally everywhere, from Europe to Asia, from Brooklyn N.Y. to Long Beach, Ca, and everywhere in between. This music, usually associated with car shows, oldies radio, and movies of the fifties, is alive and thriving. The biggest video game out right now...Guitar Hero III...has a song on it called "Psychobilly Freakout" by The Rev Horton Heat.

Yet when I asked fellow journalist April O'Neil of Rock on Request Magazine about what the scene in San Angelo, Texas was like, she said, "If you were to poll random people on the streets as to what their favorite musical genres or sub-genres were, you'd probably make it through the whole town before someone said rockabilly." Yet, San Angelo is the home of the Dead Horse, a live music venue that is one of the hubs in the sprawling state of Texas, for rockabilly and pyschobilly bands like Spector 45 from Dallas Texas, or The Grinding Wheels from Austin, Texas.

But Bryan Kelly, guitar/vocalist in a trio from San Diego, California, The Handsome Devils, has a slightly different take: "It's underground for sure. It is not mainstream. The Stray Cats revived it a bit in the eighties with MTV."

According to the guitar/vocalist Bryan Kelly in a trio from San Diego, California, The Handsome Devils, his take was slightly different, "It's underground for sure. It is not mainstream. The Stray Cats revived it a bit in the eighties with MTV."

The drummer from The Handsome Devils, Frank Winfield elaborated with this thought, "When you grew up you always hear about Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis. You know it is ingrained into the fabric of America; it is a good music."

Whatever the case is, wherever you are in the world, Rockabilly is here to stay. There is so much going on in this genre of music that mainstream radio is totally missing. Yet the music persists. To quote Chuck Berry, "Hail! hail! Rock 'n' roll! Rock 'n' roll is here to stay!"