Woodies - Swimmin' In The Reverb CD (www.poprecords.com/woodiespage, POP - www.poprecords.com)

From the SF bay area, the Woodies were a great part of the burgeoning surf music scene in the early 90s, helping to define surf cool not only with a solid sound but also with a worthy handful of original tunes that qualify as instant classics. Thanks to POP Records and former lead Woodie Rick Escobar for putting this album together even though the Woodies are now in the great surf band afterlife. These tunes exemplify the different moods common to the best trad surf music - from fast, dark, big-wave tunes like Mavericks, to search-for-surf Endless Summer tunes like Little Dume, to tunes that use exotic elements of the mid-east or even far-east like The Swami and Zorba's Last Ride. Big reverb with a great rhythm section - I especially like the rhythm guitar on their version of Mr. Rebel recorded live at Phil Dirt's show on KFJC.