Emily and Chris Winters are the duet behind Last Call Romance, a six-person Rockabilly band out of Fort Collins. Within the Rockabilly world, they’re a fairly well respected outfit, traveling to the Hemsby Rock n’ Roll Weekender festival in the UK and pulling accolades from Blue Suede News Magazine. Their 2019 full-length, Double Funeral Volume 1, is a perfect example of the genre, aimed straight at the hearts of Rockabilly die-hards.
Double Funeral Volume 1’s was pre-released at Magic Rat in Fort Collins on December 7, though not officially online until the 21st. The tunes were written over 9 years, with “What Do I Have to Prove,” “It’s Me,” and “If It’s The Last Thing That I Do” being written in 2010 and “Blood Moon,” the newest, in 2019. Though not ground-breaking, per se, given the classic meat-and-potatoes Rockabilly sound represented here, the consistency in the album’s production quality is impressive, as are the performances.
The distinctive Rockabilly genre itself is the Genesis for rock n’ roll as we understand it, as well as punk, though there are hints of old school jazz peppered throughout the album. Saxophone and upright bass on tracks like “All That Mattered” as well as the tics of Western music on the opening track add some variety, but this is still the straight-ahead Rockabilly album Last Call Romance has clearly set out to make.
If the slew of ingredients in the fancy new-fangled cocktails of Rockabilly’s modern adaptations don’t appeal to you, you can get the straight, hard stuff when Double Funeral is celebrated and performed live twice this month in Colorado.
Last Call Romance perform December 20 at The Skylark in Denver. Double Funeral Volume 1 hits the internet on December 21.
