Scotty Karate
Always Honey
(CD BABY)
With a smidgen of some Bobby Bare Jr., a tickle of Harry Nilsson, and a sprinkle of Phil Ochs, Scotty Karate delivers his odd view of the world on his new full-length album Always Honey.
He sings how he likes, making people feel good on the opener, “Lot Lot,” with just his vocal and an acoustic moving things along…as is true for most of this album. The title track follows, once again, showcasing Karate’s great punky-country vocal delivery.
“Ruby Red” slows things down to a nice country plaintive love song warble. Karate really takes his time with the lyric, again showing off his impressive pipes…as well as songwriting chops.
I even appreciate the under-a-minute long electric guitar strum of “Interlude,” placed pretty much dead center of the 11 here.
Karate manages a cover of “Unchained Melody,” the second to last tune here, then ends the album with the rowdy, overdriven guitar of “X’s On The Prowl.”It’s a snappy little rocker, and again with very simple instrumentation of not much more than some stomping, distorted electric and the man’s great voice leading the way.
Karate was born in Oklahoma, a local legend in Michigan, raised in Michigan, and toured extensively with his 90’s band, the Plumbobs. In 2004 he moved to NYC to start another band and be in others and has made his way since presenting a particular sensibility that is one part country, another punk, but all wonderful rock and roll, as heard on Always Honey,
