This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
When it comes to guitar heroes, former Mavericks’ axeman Nick Kane obviously prefers Duane Eddy to Eddie Van Halen, The Ventures to The Velvet Underground, and Dick Dale to Dimebag Darryl.
Kane’s devotion to the greats of yesteryear is clear from the descending, Pipeline surf-rock lick that opens his fabulous solo disc Songs In The Key Of E, an album that revives the classic twangy instrumentals of the ’60s. Backed by a motley crew of members of Johnny Cash’s band, Prairie Oyster and Los Straitjackets, Kane tosses off enough low-end rumbling and top-string butterfly runs in these dozen tunes to score Pulp Fiction 2. Between, he leaves enough room for excursions into fleet-fingered rockabilly, chicken-picking country, B.B. King blues, Jimi Hendrix voodoo jive and Chuck Berry riff-rock — enough to make him a guitar hero in his own right. To get the other side of the Kane, check out his more reined-in playing with rootsmeisters The Mavericks. Their greatest hits set has four new tracks (including a zippy, ’60s-flavoured take on Cat Stevens’ Here She Comes Now) along with old faves such as Dance The Night Away and the Tex-Mex spice of All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down, featuring Texas Tornados accordion master Flaco Jimenez — another legend in his own right.
