Brian Setzer

Brian Robert Setzer born April 10 1959 is an American guitarist singer and songwriter He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950sstyle rockabilly group Stray Cats and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band the Brian Setzer Orchestra In 1987 he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba Setzer was born April 1959 in Massapequa New York He started on the euphonium and played in jazz bands when he was in school He found a way to hear jazz at the Village Vanguard though as he got older he became more interested in rock punk and rockabilly He was a member of the Bloodless Pharaohs and the Tomcats which he began with his brother Gary The Tomcats became the Stray Cats when double bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom joined and Gary left the band In 1980 thinking they might have more success in England than in America they sold their instruments to pay for airplane tickets and flew to London After performing in London for a few months they met Dave Edmunds a guitarist and record producer who shared their love of rockabilly and 1950s rock and roll Edmunds produced their debut album Stray Cats Arista 1981 which yielded two hit singles Stray Cat Strut and Rock This Town The second album Gonna Ball Arista 1982 was less successful The band returned to America and released Built for Speed EMI 1982 produced again by Dave Edmunds with songs collected from their first two albums Helped by their music videos on MTV the Stray Cats became popular in America Their next album Rant n Rave with the Stray Cats EMI 1983 produced the hit Shes Sexy 17 The Stray Cats disbanded in 1984 though they occasionally reunited recorded and toured After recording three albums with different producers they returned to Dave Edmunds for Choo Choo Hot Fish 1992 After the Stray Cats disbanded in 1984 Setzer began a solo career that included working as a sideman for other acts such as the Honeydrippers led by Robert Plant On his first solo album The Knife Feels Like Justice EMI 1986 he turned away from rockabilly and moved toward rhythm and blues RB and the heartland rock of John Mellencamp The album was produced by Don Gehman and featured Kenny Aronoff on drums Both men had worked on albums by Mellencamp His second studio album Live Nude Guitars followed in 1988 While this album retained some heartland rock elements it found Setzer moving in more of a straightahead blues rock direction comparable to George Thorogoods style Setzer served as coproducer along with Larson Paine Chris Thomas and David A Stewart He went on tour with Thorogood later that year Source Article Brian Setzer from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30