Panther Burns - Shadow Dancer

Tav Falco and his mighty Panther Burns are coming to Las Vegas for the first time since I have been living here, so I have been pulling out some of their stuff lately. This one I have not heard as much as some of the others, but is still a quality piece of PB magical madness.

This is mostly a covers record, but Tav's renditions are unlike most any others that you have heard. His voice, timing and musicians give an off-beat (sometimes literally) quality to the tunes that most people cannot - or purposely do not - achieve.

Flaco is the suave man in the title of "Invocation of the Shadow Dancer", a sultry tango, with good use of piano and percussion, where you can picture him seducing the young ladies on the dance floor. Wanda Jackson's classic "Funnel of Love" is given a dizzingly Burns' treatment, followed by another tango, this time Michael Buble's "Sway", where the band once again excels. Tav gives us an original, dramatic ballad in "Love's Last Warning", a languorous take on Jimmy Witherspoon's "Lotus Blossum", picks up the pace for the swingin' "Quando Vedrai La Mia Raggazza", gives us another wonderful take on Dion's "Born To Cry" (that Johnny Thunders did on his Copy Cats album), Brooke Benton's "I'll Take Carae of You" is a soulful, organ-drenched tear-jerker, and there's a fun surprise with a stompin' take on the Honeycombs' "Have I the Right?".

"Music Maestro Please" starts as a boogie-woogie before changing into a slow piano ballad, then another Spanish-language tango in ""Guarda Che Luna", another Tav original in "Born Too Late", bemoaning his fate of living in this day and age, before the grand finale of a reprise of "Shadow Dancer".

More lounge lizard than his earlier incarnation of cacophonous rockabilly madman, but still fabulous stuff! Can't wait to see him again in person!