I’ve only go three words for this release: Oh yeah, baby. Scheduled to make his first stage appearance in over 40 years at this year’s Ponderosa Stomp, cult hero and crazed rock ‘n’ roller Arch Hall, Jr. is best remembered for the roles he played in straight-to-the-drive-in celluloid classics like Wild Guitar, The Choppers and the critically acclaimed The Sadist. But all along, he really just wanted to rock. And boy, does he ever. Arch only made a couple of singles and in his humble estimation, titles like “Monkey In My Hatband” and “Konga Joe” were cut under less then preferable conditions. The same can hardly be said for the rest of the material here, which combines newly-discovered master tapes from his films with 14 scorching live cuts, most of ’em recorded—fittingly—at a drive-in theater in Pensacola! The style: full-tilt, pre-British Invasion American rock ‘n’ roll, early ’60s style. One of the live cuts is a smokin’ version of Bobby Bland’s “Further On Up The Road” that sadly (!) reminds us that there was a time when white folks could play the blues. Of course, it helps that Hall could really wail on a guitar—and he’s all over it on every song. It’s hard to decide whether it’s his overdriven Telecaster technique or the obvious blast that he and his band the Archers are having on stage, but it all rips through the speakers in a barrage of full color graphic relief. Incredible liner notes tell the whole sordid story from Hollywood right down to an insane gig at New Orleans’ famous Dream Room. An overview of Arch’s music has been a long time coming but it was well worth the wait.