White Ghost Shivers

White Ghost Shivers

Live on the Radio (Chicken Ranch)

Pinwheeling their vaudevillian delivery to Western swing, bluegrass, hot jazz, blues, hillbilly, and ragtime, Austin's White Ghost Shivers have proven themselves a formidable live band over the last half-dozen years. Performance prowess has garnered the local octet live radio spots, a loyal following for their Halloween blowouts, the call to score Buster Keaton films for the Alamo Drafthouse, and out-of-state tours. Following last year's re-release of debut Hokum If You Got 'Em, Live compiles on-air guest spots from KUT and KVRX from 2002-2004, and while WGS is a well-oiled act onstage, not all live shows are equal. Radio spots have tightrope-without-a-net energy and better sound control, but only an imagined version of the performer-audience dynamic. On top of that, it's pretty ballsy to release two similarly songed LPs in the same year. Luckily for WGS, radio versions of studio tunes ("Outhouse Blues," "Tell It to Me") are rendered better, while lady-vox-driven opener "Pipe Dreams" and the randy "Big N Easy" anchor this broadcast. Like the live arena, Radio is a temporal pleasure.