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Album Details

• Artist: The Blasters
• Album: Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
• Label: Slash/Rhino
• Year of Release: 2002
• ME Rating: Indie Classic
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-03-31

If ever a band was able to blur the boundaries between musical genres it was The Blasters. They borrowed heavily from the blues, rockabilly, jazz, country western, swing, and pretty much anything else that was incorporated into American Music (title of their debut album). The band’s backbone was brothers Phil and Dave Alvin. John Bazz and Bill Bateman were the unflinching rhythm section and Gene Taylor was brought in to play piano. This collection does a great job in collecting their complete works. The first 12 songs are the direct selection from their debut, The Blasters. Tracks 13-26 were from their Non Fiction release. The collection also has the complete Over There album as well as Hard Line. There are also outtakes and a couple tracks that they contributed to the Streets of Fire soundtrack. Listening to this collection, it’s amazing that The Blasters never became a household name. Their style of blues/rockabilly is so strong and their original tracks are indeed some of the best-penned tracks to have ever come from the USA. The liner notes in this beautiful package are exquisite with 54 pages of Blasters memorabilia and distinguished fans notes of praise. The only thing that is missing on this fine collection is their debut album, American Music, which was recently reissued on Hightone Records. And if you are interested, the band reunited for a brief tour and Trouble Bound was the result of that; a very fine live album with all the bands favorite hits. The Blasters will live in the American Music history books as one of the finest Rockabilly bands to ever exist.

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