Salty Dog – Bite This (2011)

This Los Angeles-based band were put together in late 1986 by bass player Mike Hannon (b. Columbus, Ohio, USA) and drummer Khurt Maier (b. Sacramento, California, USA), enlisting Youngstown, Ohio-born vocalist Jimmi Bleacher and replacing their original guitarist (Scott Lane) with Canadian Pete Reveen in early 1987. The band developed a blues-based style that drew immediate Led Zeppelin comparisons, but owed more to a mixture of influences from old bluesmen such as Memphis Slim, ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson and Willie Dixon to the more contemporary sounds of Black Flag and Motörhead. Every Dog Has Its Day, recorded in Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer Peter Collins, demonstrated that the Zeppelin references were most apt, owing to the sheer variety of styles within Salty Dog’s bluesy framework, from the straightforward opener ‘Come Along’, through the smouldering ‘Slow Daze’, to the tongue-in-cheek acoustic blues of ‘Just Like A Woman’. The album received a flurry of good reviews, but Salty Dog were unable to capitalize, as Bleacher departed shortly after its release. The band struggled to find a replacement, locating Dallas native Darrel Beach (ex-DT Roxx) in late 1991, but the loss of momentum proved crucial and Salty Dog faded.