The Stray Cats' Brian Setzer releases latest solo album, 'Gotta Have the Rumble,' along with new single

Surfdog Records

Are you ready to rumble? Well, Brian Setzer is! The Stray Cats frontman released his first new solo album in seven years, Gotta Have the Rumble, today on CD and digital formats.

The new collection features 11 original tunes written or co-written by Setzer. To coincide with the album’s arrival, Brian has debuted a third single from the project, the old-time country-flavored “Rockabilly Banjo,” along with a companion music video.

Setzer co-wrote the tune with Stephen “Dibbs” Preston, lead singer of the veteran rockabilly band The Rockats. The song, which combines country and rockabilly influences, features some impressive banjo picking by Brian, as well as the talents of lauded pedal-steel guitarist Paul Franklin.

The video, which you can watch on Setzer’s official YouTube channel, features a montage of vintage black-and-white footage of banjo players, including clips of legendary folk artist Pete Seeger.

Explaining how the song came together, Setzer notes, “Me and Dibbs were hanging around, and it was one of the few times ever that someone gives me a song that’s just the music and not the lyrics. And Dibbs said, ‘Hey, you play banjo, I love the way you play it.’ You know, banjo makes everybody smile and everybody’s after me to play more banjo.”

Setzer adds, “And Dibbs said, ‘Hey, I got a song, what do you think of this?’ and I thought ‘Wow! Let’s clean it up.’ So that’s the last track.”

“Rockabilly Banjo” follows Setzer’s two previous singles from Gotta Have the Rumble, “Checkered Flag” and “Smash Up on Highway One,” which also were released alongside companion videos.

A vinyl version of Gotta Have the Rumble is due out in the fall.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Checkered Flag”
“Smash Up on Highway One”
“Stack My Money”
“The Wrong Side of the Tracks”
“Drip Drop”
“The Cat with 9 Wives”
“Turn You On, Turn Me On”
“Rockabilly Riot”
“Off Your Rocker”
“One Bad Habit”
“Rockabilly Banjo”