Original Cool

Where He Left Off/Feb.Mar. 1999

Northern California-based Dave Crimmen wears his Sun influences on his pearl-snapped sleeve with flagrant pride, boldly titling his 1997 album The Son Of Sun and dedicating Where He Left Off, his third full-length outing, to Elvis Presley &endash; "the man but more important, the music." For the most part, the formula works for him. Crimmen's at his best, though, when he sets aside the jowl-shaking Elvisisms of, say, "Take Me Baby" for the rip-roaring, throat-sanding, keyboard-pounding, guitar-burning, sax-screaming, all-out rock 'n' roll raveups of his Perkins-, Lewis- and, especially, Riley-esque "She Can't Stop Dancin'," "Go Cat Go," "Let It Rock," "A Girl Like You" and "Move On Down The Line." Then again, what the hell do I know? "Take Me Baby" recently found its way to the soundtrack of the Michael Douglas/Sean Penn flick The Game. You go, cat! Burning Tyger Music, P.O. Box 2213, Daly City, CA 94017 US

-Dare Drake