Amgwanna Kick Booty

Alright Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew just dropped the needle on Amgwanna Kick Booty by the Pat Travers Band from that Crash and Burn album and man does this one kick like a hot rod with a bad attitude. This track has that raw bluesy hard rock fire that gets the whole crew nodding along out here on the airwaves, the kind of cut that feels like it was made for late night spins with the volume cranked and the windows down. Fans have been talking about this one for years on places like SonicHits where they call the instrumental work mind-blowing and Pat Travers guitar riffs just plain sick in that good way. One listener remembered digging into Travers music as a teenager through Makin Magic and eventually landing on this as a favorite for the pure intensity that makes it wail. Another story floating around Facebook has a fan named Tommy Craig sharing tour stuff and even syncing a rollercoaster ride video to the song just to show how that driving groove still hits decades later. While there arent a ton of deep dive interviews specifically about Amgwanna Kick Booty the track sits right in the middle of the bands peak years when Crash and Burn was pushing them into headlining territory across the States. The album itself climbed into the top 30 on the charts with standouts like Snortin Whiskey lighting up the FM playlists and the whole record carried that rebellious live energy the band was known for including big festival sets in front of tens of thousands. The gritty vibe here lines up with how the Pat Travers Band always delivered on stage mixing tight rhythm from Mars Cowling on bass and the rest of the crew into something that just refuses to quit. Over on the Zoo we love spinning deep cuts like this for the Freaks who still crave that freeform album rock feeling without all the commercial noise.

Pat Travers came up the hard way and that road shows in every note of stuff like this. Born Patrick Henry Travers on April 12 1954 in Toronto Canada he picked up the guitar young after catching Jimi Hendrix live in Ottawa when he was around twelve years old. That show lit a fuse and before long he was out there in local bands like the Music Machine Red Hot and Merge playing clubs up in the Quebec area during his teens. Those early gigs taught him the ropes of bar circuit life four sets a night and all the grit that comes with it. While he was out with Merge the legendary Ronnie Hawkins spotted him and brought the young guitarist on the road for a spell. Hawkins had that old rock and roll country rockabilly thing going and Travers used the time to sharpen his playing and his voice even if it wasnt exactly the hard rock direction he dreamed of. After about a year he decided it was time to chase his own path traded the tuxedos for something freer and headed over to London around age twenty with little more than a guitar and some determination. A demo session there caught the ear of Polydor and by 1976 his self titled debut album was out featuring the steady bass work of Peter Mars Cowling who would stick around as a key part of the sound for years. Early releases like Makin Magic and Putting It Straight built on that blues rooted hard rock foundation with Travers already showing the guitar chops and vocal grit that would define him. By the late seventies he had locked in the classic Pat Travers Band lineup with Pat Thrall on second guitar Tommy Aldridge pounding the drums and Cowling holding the bottom end. That crew delivered Heat in the Street then the live power of Go for What You Know and rolled right into Crash and Burn which became their highest charting studio album. The songwriting got more layered on that record mixing the usual guitar fire with keyboards and strong rhythm section drive and it marked a commercial high point even as the classic lineup started to shift afterward. Travers has kept at it all these years still out there touring and recording with that same passion for the bluesy rock he started chasing after seeing Hendrix. Check out the full story and latest on the Pat Travers Band official website at pattravers.com where you can dig into the discography including Crash and Burn and see what the band is up to on the road. The crew keeps the fans posted over on their Facebook page with show updates and behind the scenes bits. There is also a solid fan hangout in the Pat Travers Band Facebook Group where Hammer Heads swap stories concert memories and talk about tracks just like this one. If you are a Zoo Freak looking for more of that freeform rock spirit the way it used to be come hang with us at THE ZOO and keep the records spinning. This Amgwanna Kick Booty cut is a perfect reminder of why Travers and the band earned their place on the airwaves back then and why the sound still hits hard for anyone who grew up on that real deal rock and roll. The Zoo Crew will keep digging these deep ones for all you Freaks out there riding along with us. Keep it loud keep it real and keep those requests coming. We are just getting warmed up on this one.