Sweet F.A. – Stick To Your Guns (Release Year – 1989)
One of the many bands lost in the shuffle of the grunge movement of the early 90’s was Indianapolis natives Sweet F.A.
I had the pleasure of seeing these guys live a few times before they broke up, and they always put on a good show.
Stick To Your Guns is the debut disc by this 5 piece unit of Steven David DeLong on vocals, Jon “Lightning” Huffman and James Thunder on guitars, Jim Quick on bass and Tricki Lane on drums.
This band has a great sound, which is a cross of sleaze metal and a dash of southern rock. They seemed ripe to make it big back in the early 90s but they never seemed to get the marketing push they needed by MCA to get them over the hump. They had the look, the swagger, the sound to get them there, but MCA didn’t really know how to market Hard Rock artists very well, and their success was cut short, way too early.
There are some excellent tunes on this disc that still hold up pretty well today. Prince of the City is a great high energy track to start this disc off with. Nothin’ For Nothin’ is another sleazy rocker that reminds me of the Bullet Boys quite a bit. The beat and groove of Rhythm of Action is killer. Whiskey River is a powerful rocker in the vein of Skid Row. The acoustic power ballad Heart of Gold is easily as good as anything you heard from the more successful bands of the era (Warrant, Poison, Cinderella). This disc ends with the acoustic track Southern Comfort. This is a very cool song to end this disc with.
This is one of those CD’s that 80’s hard rock fans can break out at any time and still enjoy. Great vocals, and musicianship by the Sweet F.A. guys. This is one of those discs that is out of print and is becoming harder to find, so pick one of these up if you can get your hands on it!
Rating: Out of 10
Here is the video for Rhythm of Action:
Track Listing:
- Prince of the City
- Nothin’ for Nothin’
- Rhythm of Action
- Do A Little Drivin’
- Daily Grind
- Stick To Your Guns
- Whiskey River
- I Love Women
- Breakin’ The Law
- Heart of Gold
- Devil’s Road
- Southern Comfort
Sweet F.A. is:
Steven David DeLong – vocals
Jon “Lightning” Huffman – guitars
James Thunder – guitars
Jim Quick – bass
Tricki Lane – drums
Comments
Leave a Reply
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
No incoming links found yet.
They also had Jim (quick) Quiggins on bass and the first tour for Stick To Your Guns, Glenn Quiggins played drums. Awesome Hard-Rockin bass and drums!
Had the pleasure of interviewing Steven, Mr. Thunder and Tricki during their STYG tour. They were awesome and even cut some promos for me and I was a nothin’ College DJ. Treated me like a real professional. Always remember them with a big smile.
The demos are actually better than the initial release…especially the lead guitar…for whatever reason, Jon really throttled back when MCA picked them up.
GERALDO!! I miss your Metal Works show on WBDG!!!
Jon plays in the Big Rock Show a cover band here locally in the Louisville area, my goodness he still kills it.
Met two of the original guys from the band in a indianapolis bar on 1/30/2009 when steve david delong took the stage with the ever so popular Dean Cline Band. Now 4 months later coupled with Dean Cline sweet Fa is reuniting to play a benefit concert for Crue Fest in LA at the whiskey ago go. The group is awesome their stage present and ability to get the crowd pumped is amazing, even in 2009!
Can’t really add anymore than what Rob said…criminally underrated band.Great live’ and STYG absolutely cranks from start to fin.MCA indeed dropped the ball on this-talk about a label that was asleep at the d*mn wheel..geez.
The second disc Temptation is no where near as good as the Debut, Stick To Your Guns. It has a few decent songs, but its more filler than anything else.
I think I bought their second one on cd for like a dollare a year or so ago. I couldn’t get all the way though it. Just remember there being very few hooks and the singer was very average. To be fair I really need to give the whole thing a listen when there are no distractions around.