The Cadillac Three lean into their funky, jammy side for a surprise new album. Arriving Friday, Tabasco & Sweet Tea furthers the inspired jams the Nashville trio explored in select songs on their last album, Country Fuzz.
Over 11 tracks mostly recorded on the band’s bus prior to quarantine, the group celebrates the topics they know best: booze, weed, hot girls, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. But it’s the left-field musical stylings that distinguish this record from TC3’s past four LPs, which were fleshed out by grungy country-rock.
On Tabasco & Sweet Tea, singer-guitarist Jaren Johnston has fun singing in a high disco register, drummer Neil Mason locks into some James Brown beats, and — most noticeably — Kelby Ray trades his customary lap steel for a proper bass to hold down the low end. It’s the Cadillac Three in the club.
“As we finished the last record, we knew we were only tapping the surface with songs like ‘The Jam’ for where we could go next musically and found ourselves inspired to dive into these sounds that we had never explored before as a band,” Mason says in a statement, citing the Cadillac Three’s affinity for the Meters, Stevie Wonder, and Medeski Martin & Wood.
The band will play songs from Tabasco & Sweet Tea during an October 27th livestream at 7 p.m. Nashville time.
Here’s the track list:
1. “Tabasco & Sweet Tea”
2. “Stop That Girl”
3. “Head Over Wheels”
4. “Sweet Southern Spirit”
5. “Road Soda”
6. “Bridges”
7. “Devil’s Lettuce”
8. “Crispy”
9. “Money Ain’t Shit”
10. “Turn the Radio On”
11. “Sabbath on Cornbread”