Tenderloin

Tenderloin, both the band and their debut album, seem pretty accurately named: Tenderloin is thick, fleshy meat that you can sink your teeth into and gnaw on for awhile. These boys -- lead singer Ernie Locke, bassist Big John Cutler, drummer Taz Bentley and guitarist Kirk St. James -- sure like to bust it up and party it down. Since Locke also blows some mouth harp and the band seems intent on whipping blues-based rock into hurricane-strength frenzy, there's some temptation to compare Tenderloin to bands like Blues Traveler and ripoffs of the Rolling Stones. But there's a primal urgency to the riffing and to Locke's vocals (which, in places such as "Lights Out," sound so out of control that you wonder if Tenderloin might just be the 1990s version of the legendary 1960s mind-warp The Crazy World of Arthur Brown) that from beginning to end, this debut packs a mighty wallop. ~ Chris Slawecki, All Music Guide