Dennis Hopper Choppers – Be Ready – D.Wink – DWINKCD002 - ***

An English musician sits on the outskirts of the Spanish desert town of Tabernas, where Italians shot American cowboy movies on now abandoned sets, and concocts a widescreen country rock record influenced by the mariachi hued soundtracks bashed out to accompany them.

Scott Walker only sang themes to two Spaghetti westerns, Joe Hill and The Rope And The Colt, but the Choppers' musical director and vocalist Ben Nicholls swells his lungs and ghosts the tortured troubadour a whole album of horse opera hits.

Be Ready is so ingrained with acutely observed inauthenticity it swallows its own tail and becomes thoroughly convincing.

(10/7/11)