About.comBlues schreibt:
Blues-rock guitarist George Thorogood, and his houserockin' band the Destroyers, return to the land of major labels for the July 29, 2009 release of The Dirty Dozen. Thorogood's first album in three years will be released by Capitol/EMI Records, The Dirty Dozen an eclectic collection of something old, something new, something borrowed, and a whole lotta blues….

The Dirty Dozen will feature six brand new studio recordings, including covers of Willie Dixon's "Tail Dragger," Muddy Waters' "Born Lover," Bo Diddley's rockin' "Let Me Pass," Sleepy John Estes' "Drop Down Mama" (as performed by John Hammond), Mickey Bones' "Twenty Dollar Gig," and the Holmes Brothers' "Run Myself Out Of Town."

The album will also feature six "fan favorites," including Thorogood's juke-joint rave-up on the country classic "Six Days On The Road," which was previously unreleased in the United States. Two other cuts that have never seen the light of day stateside are also included – covers of Chuck Berry's "Hello Little Girl" and Howlin' Wolf's Willie Dixon-penned "Howlin' For My Baby," as well as Wolf's "Highway 49," and "Treat Her Right" and "Blue Highway." The album, which will be available on both CD and vinyl, is formatted like a classic LP so that the new songs represent the "side one," the fan favorites and rarities as "side two."

“I’m a big fan of vinyl,” says George Thorogood in a press release for the new album. “It’s important to me to make The Dirty Dozen available on LP, and I definitely had vinyl in mind as one of the formats for this release when we were recording the new tracks. When we started sequencing the track list, I thought it would be fun to group the songs like an LP, for all of the formats – vinyl, CD, and digital – just as they would be placed for a classic vinyl album.”

Of course, Thorogood & the Destroyers will be on the road all summer supporting the new album, appearing with fellow blues-rock barn-burner Jonny Lang on several dates. “This album is also a homecoming of sorts for us," says Thorogood in his press release, "it’s a real rocker, full of songs we’ve always loved playing, including some that our fans have told us they like a lot but haven’t been available for a while. We’re definitely going to be playing some of these songs on our tour. I’m ready to mix it up and crank it up, and we look forward to seeing everyone at the shows this summer.”

Thebluesblogger.com schreibt:
Saturday evenings is normally the time where I get the majority of my writing done for these posts. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I ended up just staring at my computer monitor yesterday. The words just weren’t happening. So I did something that, believe it or not, I haven’t done in a long time. Instead of gazing at a monitor, I turned my attention to the television. Scanning through the channels, I noticed that the Disney film The Rookie just started. I’m a baseball fan and I always like movies regarding the sport. The timing seemed perfect as I could almost sense my batteries slowly being recharged… So what does baseball have to do with the blues? I probably could draw some allusions, but if you’re George Thorogood that’s where the story gets interesting.

A major New York Mets fan and baseball historian, George was a semi-pro ball player in Delaware in the seventies. Thorogood made the decision to become a musician in 1970 after seeing a John Paul Hammond concert. A second baseman, he was good enough at that level to be named rookie of the year and made the all star team. Thorogood continued playing baseball while carving a career in music. Several years later he formed a band called The Delaware Destroyers, and shortly after moved to Boston where they became regulars on the blues circuit.

Since the unveiling of his debut album in 1977, Thorogood and his band have toured with many of blues most recognized performers such as Hound Dog Taylor, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Albert Collins, Johnny Johnson, Elvin Bishop, Eddie Shaw and Buddy Guy. Most of these artists, as well as Elmore James were major influences to Thorogood in a career that has generated 5 gold albums and many classic hits which will forever be weaved into our personal memory banks.

After a three year recording hiatus, George Thorogood & The Destroyers returns to Capital/EMI with his latest release The Dirty Dozen on July 28th. His 16th studio album in a career spanning over 30 years contains six new studio recordings and six additional tracks from the past; three of which were previously out of print in the U.S. Included on the album are songs written by blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, “Sleepy” John Estes, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon. The Dirty Dozen will also be available on vinyl and the CD will be formatted like an authentic two sided vinyl LP where new songs represent “side one,” and rarities as “side two.”