Direct from the UK, a new review from the Jumpin’ Hot Club. 

Just a few snippets of the press we received while on tour this past month..

“Last night I saw one of the best bands I’ve ever seen in close to 50 years of attending gigs. It was the incredible Petunia and the Vipers at the Chichester Inn, Chichester. A small but perfectly formed crowd was treated to some incredible musicianship and a totally unique vocalist who can’t really be compared to anyone else. If you get the chance to see this amazing band take it.”

— Mike Morrison (American Roots UK)

“Extraordinary – a left field genius – one of the best releases of the year”

— Paul Kerr (AmericanaUK)

“…Hybrid musical style…edge of punk appreciation…this is an amazing album…a whole range of different styles”

“Incredibly entertaining”

“Try and catch the band live”

— Bob Harris – BBC 

“A fantastic gig by a great band – up there with the best”

— Gerry Lawless, Clonmel World Music, Ireland

“Remarkable”

— Bristol Evening Post

Petunia & the Vipers are a spry, light-fingered bunch, at ease with both headlong rock’n’roll momentum and with the elegant contours of a languorous ballad. They kicked off their set with an affecting lonesome and ever so slightly Latino lament which took its leisurely time before switching up to its scurrying, skiffly coda.

This Canadian troupe were skilled in inflecting their arrangements with a subtle hint of Tex Mex or zydeco flavour, then transporting us to a beach luau courtesy of Jimmy Roy’s mellifluous lapsteel guitar playing. Willowy frontman Petunia, looking not unlike a less skeletal Hank Williams, kept his fluent yodel under wraps until relatively late in the set before applying liberally to some oldtime country tunes. The diversity of their repertoire was showcased with a stealthy version of Little Willie John’s rhythm’n’blues rocker I’m Shakin’, which dovetailed straight into a rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust that owed more than a little to Willie Nelson’s meandering take on the melody.

— The Scotsman

The charismatic lead singer Petunia was at his best leading the audience in a rollicking good blitz of high-octane rockabilly and bluegrass numbers. But minutes later he was equally at ease crooning his way through an old Hoagy Carmichael number from the 1920s. The guy has the look – true, as it turns out – of a well-worn wandering troubadour, and he can yodel for Canada.

He and his band appear like something out of the 1950s. It’s not too difficult to imagine them opening for Buddy Holly or Bobby Darin. They are not afraid to improvise, often introducing a touch of Latino into a country or bluegrass offering. And as if to prove their versatility and desire not to be take themselves too seriously, they finished with the old Harry McLintock classic Big Rock Candy Mountain – complete with cigarette trees and streams of alcohol.

— The HeraldScotland