More Million Sellers. Well they should be. Though the title may be in jest, like “Sonny” Leyland, Deke is a world class player, the best at what he does, period. A little over a year ago when the Ecco-Fonics were playing at the Mermaid Lounge, Derek Huston of the Iguanas turned to me in amazement and said “What a great band!” Of course, there was hardly anyone there. They’ve been back four times since and it hasn’t been much better. I’m here to say it: Do not miss this band.
Like Leyland, Deke’s a little underappreciated. But there’s no stopping the inspiration. In the past that’s included the reverb-drenched, suds-soaked frat stomp of the Untamed Youth and the rockin’ hillbilly harmony of the Dave & Deke Combo. With the Ecco-Fonics, Dickerson gathers all the music that’s obsessed him for years under one roof and augmented by Leyland on piano and Joey D’Ambrosio of Bill Haley’s original Comets on tenor sax, proceeds to blow that roof to kingdom come.
He raves like a crazed Jerry Lee on his slammin’ version of Louis Jordan’s “Let The Good Times Roll” and mines the Coasters’ “Hatchet Man” with an R&B authority that equals the original. Yeah, Deke can dig up an obscurity and whip out a version that’ll blow your mind but the scales are really tipped when he puts his songwriting cap on for “I’m A Wreck”, “I Gave My Heart Before” and “Broken Down And Broken Hearted”. The crowning achievement here is “Nightmare Of A Woman” featuring former X guitarist Billy Zoom blasting out the trademark screaming leads that made him such a punk rock contender in the early L.A. days. What lyrics: “Mean and evil/ Dirty rotten/ Bad times I have not forgotten/ Girl you left a bad taste in my mouth” are only to be topped by “I asked the Lord why did he make her/ I asked the devil to kindly take her/ How I ever got involved I will never know but this nightmare of a woman’s got to go!!”.
Deke and the band also display their musical mastery with instrumentals like the Django Reinhardt-inflected Joe Maphis stunner “Rockin’ Gypsy”. There’s a lot going on in this record, yet it speaks volumes to say that it’s just a glimpse of what they routinely do live.
