Sikorski and Leslie flex their rockabilly muscles
The intersection where hard country and volcanic rockabilly cross paths is fertile territory, and when the duo of veteran musicians Jerry Sikorski and Jim Leslie fire up their amps at Burbank’s Viva Cantina on Friday, June 12, it’s guaranteed to be a gale force session.
The pair specializes in a potent blend of soulful honky tonk and high-velocity rock ‘n’ roll that’s put over with unassailable conviction and skill. It’s a tough, engaging sound that’s the result of each man’s lifelong exploration of these closely related idioms; Van Nuys-born Sikorski was a natural rocker who began playing guitar as a kindergartner, while Leslie grew up in a family closely allied with one of the genre’s pioneers.
“I’m from Clovis, New Mexico,” Leslie said. “My parents went to high school with Norman and Vi Petty, and as you know he recorded most of Buddy Holly’s stuff at his studio there, so I grew up listening to that constantly. I had a band called the Buddy Hollywoods when I was a kid.”
“I came out here in 1976, started working at the Palomino and every other club in Los Angeles. You had to, if you didn’t play every night you didn’t survive. And whenever I had a night off, I’d be at the Palomino, Talent Night with Cliffie Stone; you’d see people like Marty Robbins, Evel Knievel, drinking beer, full of painkillers. That’s where I got to know Jerry. He was just an 18-year-old kid at the time. I had a successful country band and he was coming in with Ray Campi — he was one of Ray’s original Rockabilly Rebels.”
Campi, the Texas-born bassist and 1950s rockabilly originator who was key in putting together a posse of like-minded musicians who spearheaded that almost extinct style’s revival in the mid-1970s. Campi’s crew, all of whom recorded for rockabilly zealot Ronnie Weiser’s independent Rolling Rock Records, included fellow old school veterans like Jack Lee Waukeen Cochran, Tony “Wild Man” Conn and younger devotees like Ronnie Mack, a pre-X Billy Zoom and a pair of junior high school friends: guitarists Colin Winski and Jerry Sikorski.
“Colin had met Ronnie Weiser at an Elvis show here around 1973,” Sikorski said. “So we started playing around as part of the whole Rollin’ Rock scene, and I met Ray Campi when I was 14. I had to take the bus to Ronnie’s studio to rehearse for our first show together at McCabe’s. Ray was a high school teacher at the time; [soon-to-be Runaways lead singer] Cherie Curry was one of his students!”
Winski and Sikorski were now officially members of Campi’s famed Rockabilly Rebels band, but it was a tough gig at first. Apart from warm receptions at the Pal, Sikorski said, “Nobody cared about rockabilly. People thought we were crazy!” Within a few years Campi and his Rebels became a cult phenomenon, were treated like royalty in the UK and routinely shared bills with the likes of the Clash and the Cramps.
“I met Jim Leslie right after he blew into town,” Sikorski said. “He was hanging out with [Memphis rockabilly architect] Dorsey Burnette. We hit it off immediately but you know how it is in music, paths change. We reconnected in the late-‘90s, playing on the VFW and American Legion circuit. Jim’s a really solid player and a great writer, he comes up with some of the rocking-est tunes ever.”
As a writer, Leslie has enjoyed some significant success (his “White Boots,” co-written with Elvis’ cousin Billy Swan, was recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughan) and since reconnecting some 14 years ago, the Sikorksi-Leslie partnership has been prolific.
“I hooked up with Jerry as a musical partner in ’01, and we almost immediately came up with 50 new songs,” Leslie said. “We’ve been writing and recording together ever since, got a deal with Hans Zimmer at Sony Music, put out one album and we could put out another one right now if we wanted. We’re not copying anything. We play modern rockabilly for old people! That’s what it is, and also a lot of country, ’60s-style country.”
Theirs is a powerful mix of hard-charging, accelerated barroom war cries and emotionally penetrating ballads and shuffles; the former are intense slash-and-burn rafter raisers, while the latter are delivered with rich harmony vocals reminiscent of the vintage Ray Price-Van Howard sound.
“I’m really looking forward to the show. I love to get out, kick the dust off and get down to it,” Sikorski said. “We don’t rehearse, never really even know what we may play. All I know is that it’s going to be as loud, obnoxious and rockin’ as possible.”
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Who: Jerry Sikorski and Jim Leslie with the Jokerz
Where: Viva Cantina, 900 W. Riverside Dr., Burbank
When: Friday, June 12, 8 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: (818) 845-2425, www.vivacantina.com.
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JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of “Ramblin’ Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox” and “Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story.”