Shortly after the demise of The Stray Cats, Setzer spent a short stint as the lead guitarist for Robert Plants side-project, The Honeydrippers, another band with a foot solidly planted in the past. By 1986 Setzer had decided to release his first solo album, The Knife Feels Like Justice. The solo album, as uncharacteristically as it may sound now, was more along the lines of what John Mellencamp was doing at the time, pure Americana with political and blue collar tinges. It was out of sorts for Setzer and it showed. The album did not fare well and has been long out of print. It is considered a collectors prize if it can be found on vinyl now.
In 1988, EMI released Setzer's second solo record, Live Nude Guitars, again not scoring well with the record buying public but Setzer was returning to his twangy, rockabilly roots. After his two solo albums tanked, Setzer remained low key musically for a few years, at least until 1992 when he was invited to jam with some horn players at a neighbors house. The sound clicked and an idea was born; a big band sound with a rockin' guitar out in front.
Thus The Brian Setzer Orchestra was born.
The BSO released their first album on Hollywood Records in 1994, a disc that was jammed full of reworked jazz and swing numbers with the added dimension of scorching guitar work. The disc was well received and the record release was followed by a sold out tour.
The band moved to Interscope Records and released Guitar Slinger in 1996 and brought in Texas swing and jump blues into their sound. Interestingly, the band was starting to find their groove around the same time of a major revival in the swing and Big Band sound in America. Bands like the Squirrel Nut Zippers and The Cherry Poppin' Daddies were also having major successes at the time as well.
But it was their release Dirty Boogie in 1998 that granted the BSO their legitimacy and their staying power. Two solid hits, 'Sleepwalk' and the reworking of the Louis Prima hit, 'Jump, Jive And Wail' spent several weeks catching repeated airplay and 'Wail' has been used in several commercials as well. The singles garnered Grammy Awards for the band.
Their follow up release, Vavoom, hit the market in 2000 and again proved to be a solid seller although it did not have quite the impact of Boogie. However the BSO was not done. They have released two disc's of Christmas music and their holiday tour consistently sells out at every venue.
Setzer managed to set aside time for continued solo work while still being heavily involved with the BSO. In 2003, he released an EP in Japan called Luck Be A Lady, inspired, as you might imagine, by the songs of Frank Sinatra. Shortly after that release, Setzer released a straight up rocking disc called Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy. His follow up was Rockabilly Riot 1: A Tribute To Sun Records in 2005. Riot was an interesting project in that Setzer and his small combo recorded straight up covers of old rockabilly and hillbilly rock at a small studio in Tennessee and worked hard to create the exact same sound as the records from 50 years before. From the liner notes, Setzer said " I played an old Gretsch duo-jet through a tiny Supro amp, blew up about 4 echo units, and just hoped for the best … Most modern day studios use 'canned echo' or echo created by a digital machine. We used an old water cistern (dating from the 1800's) that was located behind the studio. (Talk about a vintage echo machine!)" It worked. The sound on this disc is about as vintage as it gets.
In 2007, Setzer again stretched out his musical muscle with the release of Wolfgangs Big Night Out, a rockabilly and swing reworking of classical compositions as varied as '1812 Overdrive' (a take on the 1812 Overture) and 'Honey Man' (a stinging retake on Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee) and several others. The album secured another Grammy nomination for the Orchestra.
In 2009, the band released their latest disc, Songs From Lonely Avenue, featuring songs written solely by Setzer. The single, 'Mr. Jazz Goes Surfin', secured yet another Grammy nomination.
Setzer has never been one to sit back on his laurels and continues to write, record and tour with the BSO as well as now beginning to write movie scores and music for animated features. In looking back over his career and the decidedly different choices he has made musically, Setzer said in an on-line interview "I didn't go into this looking at it like a novelty. I didn't know how many records we might sell or gigs we might do. But I knew this was musically valid. It's been a huge undertaking but it's worth it. How many people can say that had done something that had never been done before?"
Indeed.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
