Supersuckers – Must’ve Been Live

Based in Seattle but bred in Tucson, the Supersuckers’ brand of punk was always more hick than urban, so the country turn of its 1997 record Must’ve Been High, was no huge surprise. Must’ve Been Live reprises much from that album, and marks the band’s first live record. It’s a spit ‘n’ sawdust rock ‘n’ roll party with a twang, and all the warmth of a sweaty honky-tonk lit by Wild Turkey chasers; a place where late-night confessions hold strange truths and more information than you ever needed.

Accented with copious slide guitar and lovable western swing rhythms, this serenade — to drinking, getting high, and the odd girl hapless enough to go the way of these reprobates — includes a Southern rock-inflected cover of Conway Twitty’s “Image Of Me” featuring former Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed. Another guest, Amy Nelson (Willie’s daughter), duets with singer-bassist Eddie Spaghetti on the trailer park romance of “Hungover Together”. The pair misses every opportunity to harmonize, creating a painful moment in country duet history; Tammy and George it is not.