STRAY CATS will mark their 40th anniversary in 2019 with a new album and tour. Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom–original founding members of the acclaimed American rock and roll trio–are heading into a studio in Nashville to record their first new album in 25 years.
Set to be released on Surfdog Records, the album will be produced by Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, The Brian Setzer Orchestra) and engineered by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Arctic Monkeys). Stay tuned for more details and an official release date.
The iconic group, known for their high-energy performances with hits such as “Stray Cat Strut,” “(She’s) Sexy + 17,” and “Rock This Town,” are also mapping out plans for a tour, with dates TBA. STRAY CATS in 2018 marked their first North American shows in 10 years, with four concerts including sold-out headlining shows at Viva Las Vegas and the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, CA (August 16 and 17) before wildly enthusiastic audiences.
“Forty years ago, us three teenagers started a little band to play a musical style that had long since passed, and most folks had never heard of, this Rockabilly music. Forty years later we stand together and still get that same thrill and exhilaration from the music. That feeling is what makes the fireworks go off and the sparks fly. It makes the world go around.” –Brian Setzer
“Making a new Stray Cats album for 2019 in Nashville seems like the exact right thing, right time, right place, and right band for the gig! We have an album’s worth of new songs that are classic rockabilly while keeping the music and style current and fresh, like always. In other words…A Stray Cats album.” –Slim Jim Phantom
“They say history repeats itself and I now know that’s true. 40 years after Brian, Jim and I formed the Stray Cats, we are back! I’m so excited to be in the studio with my brothers. I can tell you that this will be the best Stray Cats album we have ever made. The time is right, the songs are great and we’re ready to rock.” –Lee Rocker
ABOUT STRAY CATS:
STRAY CATS, the band that put Rockabilly music back on the record charts in the early ’80s, scored several big hits on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to a striking visual 1950’s style brought “up to date” with exaggerated pompadours and colorful tattoos and as well as genuine musical chops that evoked the best players of rockabilly’s original heyday. Formed by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer, upright bass player Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, NY, in 1979, the trio shared a love for Rockabilly music and after banging around New York and Philadelphia for a few months, in the summer of 1980, they were persuaded by a mutual friend to hop a plane to London where a rockabilly revival movement was just beginning to emerge. Their massive hits and videos include “Runaway Boys,” “Rock This Town,” “Stray Cat Strut” “(She’s) Sexy + 17,” and “I Won’t Stand in Your Way.”
