The world’s greatest wrestling-masked instrumental musical ensemble Los Straitjackets return to the Cincinnati area tonight for a show at Southgate House Revival. The band is joined by Roots music fave Deke Dickerson, who collaborated with Los Straitjackets on the recently released LP, Los Straitjackets: Deke Dickerson Sings The Instrumental Hits.
As the cheeky title suggests, the album features some famous instrumental tunes which Dickerson fleshes out with “lost or rewritten” lyrics. The track “You Can Count on Me,” for example, is The Ventures’ Hawaii Five-O theme with lyrics from Sammy Davis Jr.’s version.
Other instrumental-turned-vocalized songs on the album include classics like “Pipeline,” “Walk Don’t Run,” “Misirlou” and “Popcorn.”
“If you’re a record collector and music geek who’s been around long enough,” Dickerson said in an interview with Billboard, “you start to realize that most famous instrumental hits either started out as vocal songs, or — even better — were written as instrumentals.”
Sadly, the Star Wars theme didn’t make the cut.
Showtime tonight is 8 p.m. Admission is $20 at the door. The B-Sides open.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2014.