The Shakedown Combo

A rockabilly trio made up of a father, mother and daughter from Nova Scotia — attracted by Jackson's rockabilly roots and expertise — spent much of last week here to record an album with Larry Rogers and Rayburn Anthony of Jaxon Records.

The Shakedown Combo is a rockabilly group from Amherst, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Its members are guitarist Davey Lee Goode, singer and percussionist Gill Goode, and their daughter, bassist Kim Goode.

The Shakedown Combo has performed at National Association of Music Merchants shows in California and the "Viva Las Vegas" show in Las Vegas in April. The trio, which has already released an album called "Burnt Out Hot Rod Car" through Raucous Records, came to Jackson to record a new album at Jaxon Records.

"We're a family," Davey Lee Goode said. "We've been playing together for five years. We all love rockabilly music. We are all ticking from the same clock."

He said The Shakedown Combo is influenced by early rock and rockabilly performers such as Chuck Berry, Johnny Burnette and Carl Perkins.

Jackson, with the International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame and an annual rockabilly festival, is known as the birthplace of the genre because it was the home of Perkins. Rockabilly music is a forerunner of rock 'n' roll that blends blues, gospel, rock and country.

Jaxon Records' opening this year revived a rockabilly and country music label that operated in Jackson in the 1950s. Anthony is a veteran of the music industry who played clubs in Jackson in the '50s. He met W.S. Holland, of Johnny Cash and Tennessee Three fame, who introduced him to Sam Phillips of Sun Studios in Memphis. Anthony signed with Sun after a solo audition, and he recorded some 16 tracks for Phillips. Some of the unreleased music has been included on many Sun Records' compilations.

"What we do is driven for our passion for what Rayburn has been doing for years," Davey said. "Rockabilly is a great form of music that allows you to have fun and dabble with it."

He said this is the first time The Shakedown Combo has come to Jackson.

"Rayburn has such a great feel for the music we do," Davey said. "It's a gift to come down here. We just recorded a song today with him called 'The Invisible Man.'"

"Gill does a part in it," Anthony said, laughing. "She's an invisible girl."

"I adore rockabilly," Gill Goode said. "I enjoy singing and playing the music my husband writes. The audience and people who dig our music are phenomenal."

Kim Goode plays a white-and-black polka-dotted upright bass.

"I enjoy entertaining the people," she said.

Davey said the group dresses in 1950s rockabilly style.

"It's very much a lifestyle," he said. "It surrounds you."

Performing requires training one's mind.

"It's great to play music, and it's great to entertain people. If you can express yourself and get the audience to interact with you — that's magic. There's nothing better than to have the whole room rocking along with you." - The Jackson Sun

For the past couple of years now The Shakedown Combo has been quietly making a name for themselves. This Halifax based band is known to be a hard workin' fun loving band that follows it's own vibe.Oh yeah this is also a family affair.Anyway "Shakin'Down"(the bands 2nd album) is a solid follow up to "Brunt Out Hot Rod Car" and it's more fun .This is pretty catchy rockabilly that doesn't take itself too serious.To top things off the band injects little bits of the blues and country into the works.Highlights include: "The Beast"," Let This Saucer Fly" and "Rockin' Love". With 15 tracks here ,this is music for your dinning,drinking and dancing pleasure and that's okay by me - Slams Reviews

Big things are happening for the Amherst-based rockabilly band The Shakedown Combo. Next week, the group —guitarist Davey Lee Goode, singer/percussionist Gil Goode and their daughter, upright bassist Kim Goode— will be headed to Jackson, Tennessee to record an album on the JAXON record label with Larry Rogers and extra help from Sun Records recording legend Rayburn Anthony. While in Jackson, the band will also be playing a show at the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in front of a crowd that will include Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, who used to play with Elvis. No big deal.
This burst of good fortune came about the old-fashioned way: a talent scout for the JAXON label picked them out at the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly festival earlier this year. Kim Goode says her family is psyched, to say the least. “We'll be meeting some true icons of the rockabilly genre and legends that have been completely influential to us all,” she says. “Davey is very excited to meet with Scotty Moore. In fact, he's jumping off the walls.” I cannot imagine how amazing it would be for a musician to receive this sort of opportunity in Tennessee; just visiting the place creates music-nerd chills that are difficult to shake. The band leaves for Jackson on Friday — follow updates on their Facebook page. - The Coast

Night two of Red Hot and Blue started out with The Shakedown Combo, a great act based out of Nova Scotia. The double bassist especially stood out because the band had no drummer, so a majority of the percussion came from this talented woman’s popping and slapping on the bass. The lead singer sang her heart out and also whacked on a handheld drum from time to time, and the guitarist strummed and wailed on the guitar. - SSG Music

Premier à fouler la scène, The Shakedown Combo a fourni le boost de sucre qu’il fallait au public pour se réveiller. Un peu comme le ferait une orangeade bien fraîche servie dans un shack à tacos, quelque part entre les frontières américaines et mexicaines. Le trio de la Nouvelle-Écosse produit un son près des rythmes gras et étranges que préconisent des cinéastes comme Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) et Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof): très road trip en plein désert, entraînant et étourdissant à la fois; pensez à l’impression que ça vous fait lorsque vous regardez un point fixe sur un paysage se défilant à toute vitesse devant vos yeux. Le groupe a trouvé en Miss Kimmi plus qu’une contrebassiste. Au-delà de son style néo-gothique, la jeune femme impressionne par ses talents de percussionniste: elle n’hésite pas à renchérir le son bien gras de son instrument en le transformant en tambour; tape les cordes, tape le bois, tape les cordes, tape le bois, si bien que le rythme tend parfois vers le psychobilly.

(English translation)
First to tread the stage, The Shakedown Combo provided the boost of sugar need to wake up to the public. A much like an orange-cold served in a taco shack somewhere between U.S. and Mexican borders. The trio of Nova Scotia produces fat and odd rhythms that call for filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) and Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof) great road trip in the desert, resulting in stunning and at a time, think the impression that it makes you when you look at a fixed point on a landscape is moving at full speed before your eyes. The group found in Miss Kimmi more than a bassist. Beyond the neo-Gothic style, the young woman impressed by her talents as a percussionist: she does not hesitate to outdo the sound of her instrument very fat by converting it into drum taps the strings, wood tape, the tape string, tape the wood, so the pace sometimes tends to psychobilly. - Bang Bang

The show opened with the “rockabilly” family trio of “The Shakedown Combo”, originally from the UK and migrating to Western Canada, they now call Nova Scotia home. All I can say is this family can play, young Kimmi plays a full stand up bass like she was born with it in her hand, I was mesmerized watching her play. Guitar player, and ‘daddio’ of the group David Goode is a very good guitar player that fills the room with fantastic rockabilly riffs, while in center stage the matriarch of the group, Gill Goode belts out the vocals sometimes in a wail, sometimes in a purr that matches her leopard print outfit. A very fun group to listen too and to watch perform. - Refrain Music

Hay daddio! The Shakedown Combo proves that the family that plays rockabilly together, stays together.
by Holly Gordon

Davey Lee Goode reveals a surprise over the phone. Asked how the members of his band, The Shakedown Combo, met, he chuckles. "That's kind of a closely guarded secret: We're a family." It's tough to figure that out from their website, but Gill Goode, vocalist (pictured), and Davey, guitarist, are married, and they moved to Calgary from Britain with their daughter Kimmi, the band's bassist, more than a decade ago. Davey thinks they've been a cohesive band for the past two years. "We always have [played together], because we're family," he says. "We spend so much time together it was a really tight unit, so that became the thing and that's what we've really honed in on."

And that honing always turns to rockabilly. Davey's had a lifelong love for rockabilly twang, playing with bands in the UK and Calgary, and Gill and Kimmi have found themselves doing the same. (Davey admits that Kimmi is also into the punk scene, but quickly adds that it's usually punk derived from rockabilly.)

The Combo recorded a CD last year, Burnt Out Hot Rod, and while it's yet to be released Davey says he hopes to have some samples of it for Saturday's Reflections show.

Putting time into their own work is something members of the Goode family have been doing more of lately, since making a move to Amherst last year to expand their guitar part company, The Greasy Groove Inc. (A second secret revealed, explaining Davey's 902 area code. ) The Combo just returned from a gig in LA, and travels frequently for business and band.

"Wherever the scene is we go to it," says Davey, adding that the Combo's starting to uncover the rockabilly scene in Atlantic Canada while travelling wherever invited. "We're pretty much a 'yes' band."
- The Coast

The opening act were The Shakedown Combo, who were, if I understood correctly, from Amherst by way of England – in any case, they showcased some true, rockabilly inspired rock and roll. At first I was a little apprehensive about the lack of a drummer, but the pounding slap bass of Kim Goode and her tattooed upright quickly alleviated those fears. With a little extra percussion from singer Gill Goode, the band was swinging and bopping and no one could resist dancing to their catchy, old school rockabilly tunes.
- Noiseography

When legendary Rockabilly guitarist and producer Danny B Harvey came to Greasy Groove studio's just south of Calgary Alberta, he didn’t know what to expect. Danny has played guitar with rockabilly legends The Headcats, featuring Lemmy of Motorhead fame on bass and Slim Jim of Stray Cats fame on drums as well as a host of other groups. It just made sense for southern Alberta based Rockabilly Blues group, The Shakedown Combo to invite Danny north from his L.A. base to help them record their debut album.

A great sound and a legendary producer still don’t add up to a great album. Sound engineering is vital and Vancouver based Tim Crich stepped up to provide the rich technical background needed to complete the picture. Tim has worked with such greats as The Rolling Stones, KISS, Bryan Adams, Foreigner, Blue Oyster Cult, and the list goes on and on. Both text books he’s written and published through Black Ink Publishing, are required reading for nearly every sound engineering post secondary curriculum in North America.

It took a week of 18 hour days, a few tears, and a lot of laughs to produce 12 new tracks. Compliment the fresh crisp sound of The Shakedown Combo, with the professionalism and experience of Danny B. Harvey and Tim Crich and the results speak for themselves. The album sounds fantastic.

And just who is The Shakedown Combo? Could they be a group of expatriated British rockers living on the outskirts of Calgary? Absolutely! With Davey Lee Goode on guitars and vocals, Gill Goode performing raucous vocals and percussion, Miss Kimmi slappin’ the upright bass The Shakedown Combo is the freshest sound west of Toronto.

Davey Lee’s extensive background of Rockabilly, Rockin’ Blues and ‘50’s Rock and Roll is the result of years of hammering out long nights on the British and European festival and club circuit.

Along with the new CD came a new name for the group as Davey felt that he finally had a real band where everyone contributes equally. The as yet un-named CD returns Davey Lee to his Rockabilly roots. Unlike traditional Hillbilly music this is real rockin’, throbbin’, ass kickin’ Rock and Roll. Miss Kimmi’s thumping style and professional delivery show a maturity far beyond her 19 years and defines what a rhythmic Bass is all about by creating a groove that gives you fast ankles. Gill’s sassy sultry rockin’ vocal delivery makes it seem like she was born to the stage and Davey, well what can be said.

Look out for these guys playing in your area and also look out for the new CD. Still going through final mixing they aren’t sure when it will be released (most likely through UK label Raucous Records) but hopefully early 2008.

Nearly forgot. Egg Chips and beans? Well they’re English aren’t they?
- Jim Beddow