Kick back in the bayou with Scott Ramminger's album

Get ready to kick back with good ole’ “nawlins” beats in Scott Ramminger’s new album with his band, the CrawStickers. Although “Crawstickers” sounds a bit dated at times, nearly all of the 11 songs nevertheless have toes tapping along within seconds.

So what exactly is a “crawsticker”? As described in the opening track, which is also the title song, a crawsticker is something that “sticks in your mind.”

The majority of the album doesn’t stray far from traditional blues and the twangy sounds of Louisiana. Still, it isn’t hard to hear the splashes of jazz and soul, along with a faster-paced, boogie-style beat that can be heard on tracks like “Real Fine Gumbo” (which actually has a somewhat more urban feel to it) and “The Country’s Gone from Me” featuring singer Patty Reese.

The most interesting track however, is “That Rumba Beat.” Going along with its title, the song does in fact follow a rumba beat. It is a more relaxed rumba, but it is accompanied by some masterful guitar and saxophone playing that prevent the track from ever getting dull. All of it sounds slightly out of place among the rest of the songs on the album, but it is definitely worth a listen.

According to Ramminger’s website, three of the album’s songs, “Real Fine Gumbo,” “Crawstickers” and “Three Dollar Beer,” were semi-finalists in the international United Kingdom Songwriting Contest. Each got a score of received a score of eight, which, “according to the contest organizers, means they were among the top 8 percent of the 6000 songs submitted, and ‘among the top songs in the contest.’”

Scott Ramminger and the CrawStickers are based around the Washington D.C. area. More information about the group and their music can be found at scottramminger.com.