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Punk blues always strikes me as a very bizarre genre. It has the classic blues style of playing, but freneticism wild eye of punk rock, which in theory, should bridge the gap for punk fans and rock ‘n’ roll fans to meet in the middle. Yet it seems to be a very niche genre for no good reason.
Take Dead Trains’ new single/cover “Country Road Bound/Mean Town Blues.” The song runs at a breakneck speed, to the point where it’s off-the-rails energy is borderline psychobilly. But give guitarist Matt Axton an acoustic guitar and few shots of whiskey and this could easily translate into a blues jam well-suited for a porch step or a coffeehouse.
The band’s original song (Country Road Bound) is blended with the Johnny Winters’ cover (Mean Town Blues) almost flawlessly, so much so that one who is unfamiliar with Mr. Winters’ lengthy discography could easily mistake it for the band’s own. SImilar to the last time they meshed together a song with “Mean Town Blues” (see the band's 2013 EP Break ‘Em On Down), Dead Trains intertwines their original with Winters’ song, which is already revved up in it’s original form, and creates three-minutes of over three-and-a-half minutes worth of runaway rhythms and a clean, rocking blues riff.