Album review: Rainer and Das Combo, Barefoot Rock with... Rainer and Das Combo (Fire)

Though his life was cut tragically short before he could reap the rewards of his pioneering work, Rainer Ptacek embodied all that was/is best about the Americana movement. Gently dedicated to his chosen instrument – the resophonic steel guitar – he drew from its history without being bound by it.

Repackaged with a second disc of unreleased material, this 1985 debut, the first of a complete reissue programme of his undervalued oeuvre, includes covers of blues songs by Robert Johnson and JB Lenoir, but they're far from slavish copies, driven instead by a churning garage-rockabilly pulse that recalls the Sixties R'n'B heyday.

Download: That's How Things Get Done; Sleepwalk; Around and Around; If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day