OK, time for some fun! New kids Tim Crane (T Bird) and his friends are "Breaking" out their debut cd with a big cd release party at the Continental Club in Austin January 31. Man I wish I could go! Actually so does my 7 year old son Andrew. Sitting here listening to Juice off the cd he mumbled to no one in particular, "Man I love this song," even though he'd never heard it! I take it as one of those "Hey Mikey, Mikey likes it" testimonies. Honestly, if you can't get into this disc crawl into your pine box and close it from the inside 'cause you, my friend, are dead. This is a ten piece unit in the days of sound loops and drum machines. This is a full out R&B assault that anyone who can spell "STAX" is sure to enjoy! For you older Texas soul fans, T Bird has been compared favorable to Roy Head. From the energy of opening track Two Tone Cadillac T Bird keeps you hopping, finally slowing down a bit to close things out with a soulful, sax laced ballad, Sunday On My Own. In between these check out funky Esmerelda. T Bird says "Esmerelda, you make me want to burn off all my clothes." Now that's funky! I also love Blackberry Brandy and Stand Up. Many of the songs were written by T Bird, who is well backed by the Breaks: Stephanie Hunt- Vocals, Jazz Mills- Vocals, Sasha Ortiz-Vocals, John Allison- Lead Guitar, Sam Patlove- Rhythm Guitar, drums; Cody Furr- Bass Guitar, Damien Llanes- Drums, Matt Price- Trombone, Stephen Beasley- Baritone Sax and Houston Rawl- Sax. This is definitely a disc I'll listen to many times!