The Blacktop Rockets are ‘GO’ with new CD and some new sounds

When the Blacktop Rockets started out in 1993, the Atlanta duo featuring singer-songwriter-guitarist Dave Weil and drummer David Watkins were riding the crest of one of the new waves of the American rockabilly revival.

Nowadays, along with Weil and Watkins, the band features longtime Atlanta blues and rock guitarist Johnny McGowan and new bassist Steve Stone. And while that primal rockabilly-boogie fusion of blues and country is still at the root of the music they make, it’s a little harder to pin it all down to a single sound.

That’s especially true on “GO” — the new Blacktop Rockets CD set for release on April 8 at a show at one of the band’s favorite venues, the Star Community Bar in Little Five Points.

“GO” is the first set of tunes to delve into the recent songwriting partnership between Weil and McGowan. And in many ways, the material represents not only their point of view as mature musicians but their love of a wide range of styles.

Beyond guitars, bass and drums, there’s piano, organ, saxophone and trumpet in the mix. And McGowan and Weil songs, such as “Taillight Goodbye,” “One Dead Rose” and “Duel at Diablo,” range from country rock to honky-tonk to mariachi-tinged spaghetti Western theme music.

Recently, McGowan and Weil talked about their influences, the new CD, and the current state of the band.

“One of the first records I ever bought was the ‘The Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash,’ ” Weil remembered. “I will say I got away from that in my teen years. I got into psychedelic music, British invasion, then Southern rock. But I heard Robert Gordon with Link Wray and that got me started listening to the people they were covering, like Eddie Cochran and Jack Scott. That’s when I went into rockabilly full-on.”

While he still loves it, Weil admits that being stuck in the strictly rockabilly box can be limiting creatively.

“I think in a lot of our songwriting on this new record, you’ll hear a lot more of a general roots rock or Americana sound,” he said. “But it’s still rhythm and blues-meets-country. And I’d like to think our audience is more the people who might go see Dave and Phil Alvin or Los Lobos.”

Though they’ve recorded a few CDs over the years, the Blacktop Rockets are best known as a live band, capturing audiences with a rocking rhythm section, McGowan’s red-hot guitar playing and Weil’s swinging, expressive vocals.

But Weil and McGowan agree that the chemistry of their recent songwriting collaborations has brought a different dimension to being onstage together.

“I think the onstage collaboration was always pretty solid and tight, but I think it’s even gotten better since we started writing together,” Weil said.

“I super enjoy Dave’s voice,” McGowan said. “And every once in a while, when we’re onstage and I hear him singing, and maybe people are singing along with him, I pinch myself and think, ‘This is a song that we wrote together.’

“If you’re playing music after the age of 40 in live performance, you’re crazy. It’s not easy. When you’re 22 and living in someone’s spare bedroom, it’s easy. You don’t care about the money. But I think I’ve gotten back to that place, where the only thing that matters is playing in the moment, in the group, and that’s where my enjoyment is now.”