Brian Setzer doesn’t want your money. That’s the only possible explanation for all the banjo-plucking, yodeling, classical noodling and other activities guaranteed to keep his songs off the radio, not to mention most other places where people find music these days.

Setzer could have disappeared into the sunset after the Stray Cats went to that great feline rescue center in the sky, but he succeeded against all odds with his Brian Setzer Orchestra, first riding the unlikely swing craze of the mid-’90s and then with this decade’s Christmas records and tours. His most successful non-holiday effort remains 1998’s The Dirty Boogie, probably because that record stayed mostly true to his rockabilly roots while still swinging like a runaway big-band freight train.

Since then he’s experimented more – with hip-hop rhythms on Vavoom! (2000), and classical compositions on Wolfgang’s Big Night Out (2007) – and if record buyers haven’t responded as enthusiastically, Setzer certainly seems to be having a grand old time. But he takes a slightly darker turn on his orchestra’s latest, Songs from Lonely Avenue (Surfdog).

The first BSO album to feature all Setzer originals, the bandleader says he envisioned it as the soundtrack to an unwritten 1940s or ‘50s film noir – but listening to it, it’s not just a soundtrack. It’s the whole darn movie. (more…)