With a major network TV show, "So You Think You Can Dance," still playing "Zoot Suit Riot," the hit that made Cherry Poppin' Daddies a household name, the group entered the studio to begin work on what would become "Susquehanna."

Written mostly in 2007, "Susquehanna" brings together the Daddies' West Coast and Latin influences: flamenco, greaser rock, swing, ska, glam, and soca.  

Named after a muddy, flood-prone river in upstate New York; the Susquehanna, on which front man Steve Perry grew up, the album is a story of memory and time, a tale of losses, love, doubt, and fatigue. But as the end of the record approaches, there is grace and gratitude.

Opener "Bust Out" begins with a blast of trumpets and Spaghetti Western guitar, like a sonic inverted-exclamation mark at the start of the record. A nod to the Rock En Espanol of bands like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, the tune explores what Perry sees as an important strand of pop music's future tapestry.

"My prediction is that in 30 years, American pop will owe a huge debt to world sensibilities", he says, "these I wanted to explore and potentially boil down to some fundamental building blocks that might lead toward a new, more international style."

"Roseanne" frames Leonard Cohen-esque lyrics in flamenco guitar and percussion sounded by real dancing feet, altogether a lovely and dark meditation on the sway of sex and its proximity to dissolution and death.

Despite its mélange of styles, "Susquehanna" is lyrically perhaps the band's most cohesive.

"I guess I hoped for each song as a chapter in a modernist novel," Perry says of the record, "like James Joyce's, `Ulysses,' where the literary style/genre that each chapter is written in is radically different. So a pop album, disjointed and maybe even jarring, in style and structure, but thematically coherent".  

Following the release of "Susquehanna," the Cherry Poppin' Daddies will be hitting the road throughout the summer and fall, and into winter, reminding fans that they're alive and well. And "Susquehanna" proves they're as entertaining, thoughtful and energetic as ever.