There may be less likely country bands in the world than The Blazing Zoos, but this seems unlikely. The singer and songwriter is, in real life, a journalist (Andrew Mueller, author of “I Wouldn’t Start From Here” and “Rock & Hard Places”). The lead guitarist and drummer sold millions of albums in the 90s as members of an electronic pop group (Mike Edwards and Gen Matthews, late of Jesus Jones). The bassplayer is a punk rock guitarist (Seymour Patrick, formerly of Miss Black America, now of Ten City Nation). The piano player (Robin Colgan) decamped, after recording his contributions to the group’s debut album, to Dubai. The Blazing Zoos’ gestation was, if anything, even less plausible than their lineup. The songs on their debut album, “I’ll Leave Quietly”, due for release in early 2010, were substantially composed in early 2006 over a series of lost weekends in Tripoli, Nashville, Edinburgh and Kilkenny. Their first ever live performance was in the summer of that same year on a beach in southern Albania. Since then, their shows have been rather more prosaically situated, but have included support slots for Chuck Prophet, Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans, Kris Delmhorst, Grant Langston & The Supermodels, and Luke Haines. “I’ll Leave Quietly” was recorded in 2008-09 at the London studio of producer Mark Wallis (The Go-Betweens, Travis, U2, Alabama 3, among many others). It includes guest contributions by cultishly adored Shetlandic singer-songwriter Astrid Williamson (vocals), Black Box Recorder’s John Moore (saw), The Cedars’ Jason Moffatt (banjo) and The Coal Porters’ Neil Bob Herd (pedal steel). The songs are, in the main, wretchedly self-explanatory, with the possible exceptions of “Kumbo Prison Blues” (an obvious homage to Johnny Cash, relating an entirely true tale of imprisonment in Cameroon) and bonus track “Like Tirana” (a shout-out to Albania’s colourful capital, written before quite realising that the show in Albania was about an eight-hour drive away). As of late 2009, The Blazing Zoos were playing live again after a longish hiatus, with a new-look line up featuring Norman Levene (ex-Lovefield) on piano and Jeremy Jones on lead guitar.
