Loaded .38s, space heaters, and big skies. Welcome to the lethal littered landscape of Jim Heath’s imagination. True to his high evangelical calling, Jim is a Revelator, both revealing & reinterpreting the country-blues-rock roots of American music. He’s a time-travelling space-cowboy on a endless interstellar musical tour, and we are all the richer & “psychobillier” for getting to tag along.

Seeing Reverend Horton Heat live is a transformative experience.

Flames come off the guitars. Heat singes your skin. There’s nothing like the primal tribal rock & roll transfiguration of a Reverend Horton Heat show. Jim becomes a slicked-back 1950’s rock & roll shaman channeling Screamin’ Jay Hawkins through Buddy Holly, while Jimbo incinerates the Stand-Up Bass like Jerry Lee Lewis on steroids. And then there are the “Heatettes”. Those foxy rockabilly chicks dressed in poodle-skirts and cowboy boots dreamily dancing the night away. It’s like being magically transported into a Teen Exploitation picture from the 1950’s that’s currently taking place in the future.

Listening to the Reverend Horton Heat is tantamount to injecting pure musical nitrous into the hot-rod engine of your heart. The Reverend’s commandants are simple. Rock hard, drive fast, and live true. And no band on this, or any other, planet rocks harder, drives faster, or lives truer than the Reverend Horton Heat. These “itinerant preachers” actually practice what they preach. They live their lives by the Gospel of Rock & Roll.

From the High-Octane Spaghetti-Western Wall of Sound in “Big Sky” – to the dark driving frenetic paranoia of “400 Bucks” - to the brain-melting Western Psychedelic Garage purity of “Psychobilly Freakout” – The Rev’s music is the perfect soundtrack to the Drive-In Movie of your life.

Jim Heath & Jimbo Wallace have chewed up more road than the Google Maps drivers. For twenty-five Psychobilly years, they have blazed an indelible, unforgettable, and meteoric trail across the American musical landscape with their unique blend of musical virtuosity, legendary showmanship, and mythic imagery.

Okay it’s time for me to put this loaded gun down, jump in my Five-Oh Ford, and nurture my pig on the outskirts of Houston. I’ll be bringing my love whip. See y’all later.

C. M. Talkington Writer/Director

Love & A .45