Roadhouses, Juke Joints and Honky-Tonks Pre-Sale

The Hillbilly HooDoo of Rusty Ends is a beguiling blend of the contrasting musical idioms that the guitarist soaked up like a sponge during a well-spent Kentucky youth. “It’s a combination of our Kentucky roots and the hoodoo beat of New Orleans,” explains Rusty, “and the greasy kind of swamp stuff.

In our music, you hear a lot of those different genres.” Across the decades, Rusty has played more than his share of roadhouses, juke joints, and honky-tonks. His savory musical stew is guaranteed to keep you moving and grooving from first note to last.     “To this day, I get uncomfortable  when people don’t dance,” he says. “I just feel like I’m doing something wrong if I can’t get them up on the dance floor.”

Happily following his own muse, Rusty Ends continues to brew up his own brand of Hillbilly HooDoo, intent on letting the world luxuriate in his irresistible musical hybrid. “Hank Williams, he had the blues,” he says. “It comes from someplace really deep. I think it’s an African American art form. It comes from maybe deep inside the earth or something. Maybe something really primal. To me, blues is what it makes you feel inside.”

Related Albums

Rusty Ends Blues Band

The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing

Tough Luck

Snake Walk Pre-Sale

1 Bad Like Billy the Kid  3:39   (Rusty Ends, Ernest Wayne Young, Earwig Music Company)

2 The Same Thing  2:51   (Rusty Ends, Gene Wickliffe, David Zirnheld, Earwig Music Company)

3 Honky Tonk Man  2:53   (Troy Seals, Max D. Barnes, Irving Music)

4 Lost in the Blues  3:59   (Rusty Ends, Ernest Wayne Young, Earwig Music Company)

5 Rockabilly Train  2:38   (Rusty Ends, Gene Wickliffe, David Zirnheld, Earwig Music Company)

6 Angels Sing the Blues  4:50   (Rusty Ends, Ernest Wayne Young, Earwig Music Company)

7 A Little Mixed Up  3:17   (Betty James, Edwards Johnson / Garnet Publishing / Sunflower Music Inc.)

8 The Worm’s Turned  2:46  (Rusty Ends, Gene Wickliffe, David Zirnheld, Earwig Music Company)

9 Midnight Screams  4:50   (Rusty Ends, Earwig Music Company)

10 Linda Lu  2:53   (Ray Sharpe, Gregmark Music Inc.)

11 Lie to Me  2:08   (Rusty Ends, Gene Wickliffe, David Zirnheld, Earwig Music Company)

12 Thing Called Love   2:46   (Rusty Ends, Earwig Music Company)

13 When a Geezer Plays the Blues  3:25   (Rusty Ends, Ernest Wayne Young, Earwig Music Company)

14 Bourbon Moon  2:29   (Rusty Ends, Gene Wickliffe, David Zirnheld, Earwig Music Company)

15 Night Life  4:55   (Willie Nelson, Paul F. Buskirk, Walter M. Vreeland

/ Sony/ATV Tree Publishing / Pappy Daily Music LP / Glad Music Publishing & Recording LP)

Rusty Ends – vocals – all tracks except (7,12,14), electric guitar on all tracks

Dave Zirnheld – vocals (7,12), and electric bass on all tracks

Gene Wickliffe – drums on all tracks

Roosevelt Purifoy – piano (3,5,6,9,10), organ (4,9,11,12,15)

Wayne Young – second guitar on tracks (1,2,3,9)

Produced by Rusty Ends and Michael Robert Frank

Recorded, mixed, edited and mastered by Julia Miller, at Delmark Studio, Chicago, Illinois

Recorded November 4,5,6,7,8, 2024 except

Wayne Young overdubs recorded by Mike Baker at DSL Studio, Louisville, Kentucky January 21, 2025

Front Cover photograph by Michael Robert Frank

Liner Notes by Bill Dahl

Graphic Design by Steven Hausheer

Distributed by CPI Distribution and The Orchard

SPECIAL THANKS FROM RUSTY to Julia Miller and Elbio Barilari at Delmark Records for their guidance in making this album, to Scott Mullins for encouraging me to write songs, and to my former bandmate Dave Witherspoon for the guitar hook on “Midnight Screams”.