The list of bands Jack Oblivian (Memphis, Tennessee) has played in or fronted is too long to name. Best known are probably: Oblivians, Compulsive Gamblers, and Tennessee Tearjerkers. But he was also active with Rhythm & Blues veteran André Williams (RIP 2019). With his music, Jack paved the path to success for bands like The White Stripes, The Black Keys or The Black Lips. However, he himself always remained an underdog, either known as a cult figure of genre-bending garage rock, or simply unknown. With The Sheiks, who also act independently as a band, he has now had a permanent backing band since 2014 and also performed with them in the Scheune in Dresden in 2016 as part of his European tour. With the Sheiks, he has now released twelve songs that once again playfully dissolve the boundaries of garage rock, blues, rockabilly, country, punk, soul and power pop. The album opens with two fast, danceable garage-punk numbers ("Boy In A Bubble", "Hey Killer"), followed by the sweetly querulous country-rock number "Fast Friends". With the support of Bill Gibson's feverish harmonica, we then roll through the American vastness as a lonesome rockin' traveller with the locomotive "Home in my Hand". This number, first released by Dallas Frazier in 1967, is also known by the Nuremberg rockabilly/Americana band Smokestack Lightning. It is followed by sleazy 70's red light rock ("Downtown") and charmingly groovy pop ("Blind Love"). The B-side begins with Jack Oblivian's typical mix of sweet melancholy and feel-good power pop ("Stick To Me"). With its danceable coconut groove, the title track "Lone Ranger of Love" proves how cool and quirky catchy song arrangements can be. The hypnotic and surely tequila-founded "La Charra (Part 1&2)", on the other hand, roars us all the way to Mexico into the hot wilderness. By the end of the LP it gets equally as druggy. One feels almost cinematically entertained by the great new arrangement of the 1980s US charter success "Ride like the Wind" by Christopher Cross. Jack O has transformed this radio hit into a dark psychological thriller with Wurlitzer piano and charismatic, evocative vocals. Finally, Jack O gallops unerringly towards the moon accompanied by choral vocals with the beautiful outlaw country number "Running from the Law" (originally by Gene Nitz, 1967). Surely the best place for him to tinker with new songs. (Written by DJ Cramér for DRESDNER Kulturmagazin, translated by Tini Bot)