Review: 8 Ball Aitken - Rebel With A Cause 2009, Phoenix Movement Records Sometimes the music we grew up with (individually or as a culture) is harder to hear, so wave of international artists finding success with American Roots music is no surprise. Along comes Queensland, Australia's 8 Ball Aitken, a banana picker turned guitar picker who appears to be channeling the very soul of Country, Blues and Roots music as it grew out of the Southern United States. 8 Ball Aitken's debut album, Rebel With A Cause has generated two top-10 Country singles in his native Australia and won him a 2008 EMI Music Blues & Roots Song Of The Year Award for Yellow Moon. Aitken has played dates in the UK, Singapore and North America, recently putting in a stellar performance at Canadian Music Week. It's only a matter of time before North American audiences catch on to 8 Ball Aitken. Rebel With A Cause opens with Cyclone Country, a bluesy Southern Rocker with some serious honky-tonk in its lineage. Aitken has a wonderfully smooth and lyric rock voice that contrasts nicely with the heavily country-influenced Rock N Roll. Cyclone Country is built on a killer lick that would make ZZ Top beam with pride and a chorus you can't help but sing/hum along to. Cowboy Movie is all about taking a stand for what you know to be right regardless of the consequences. The allegory is poetic if unexpected and the melody is pure honey. The Party has a vague Dire Straits-does-Country feel to it; this is a tune that's