The Clutters

The Clutters

T&C (Chicken Ranch)

Tail-feathers at the ready ... commence shaking. The Clutters' T&C makes you sweaty just listening to it. Involuntarily, your foot starts twitching to the dum-dum-da-dum-dum drumbeat that introduces "Crack Your Heart," and it's off to the races: You'll be doing all those Sixties dances with funny names in no time. The Nashville, mixed-gender quartet might not be reinventing the wheel, but it doesn't matter, because they're completely convincing with what they're doing. ("She wants to shake, he wants to get down," as per "You'll Never Be Famous.") It probably doesn't hurt that main vocalist Doug Lehmann sounds a little like Lou Reed and Jack White at times, and it definitely doesn't hurt that the songs are vivid, kinetic, and punctuated by colorful swaths of guitar and Farfisa. The Clutters understand that rock & roll doesn't have to be important, doesn't have to be meaningful, doesn't have to be life-changing. All it has to do is make you dance. In this, T&C stands alongside anything by Austin's Stepbrothers, Bloody Tears, or Ugly Beats. The Clutters may hail from Tennessee, but they're preaching straight from the Book of Beerland. And preaching well.