Seven friends from Somerset and Wiltshire who have more than 150 years worth experience in the music business have finally made their first album together.

The Critters are friends Griff Daniels (guitar and vocals) Nikki Mascal (vocals, Guitar), Steve Heard (bass), Steve Loudoun (Guitar and vocals) Blair Keltie (percussion and vocals), Simon Thompson (sax) and Mike Peake (trumpet).

Although the members have played together in different bands throughout the last 25 years this is their first album together.

The eponymous album is made up of covers, including songs from the likes of Bob Marley and Sly and the Family Stone, and was recorded across the boarder at Handsome Llama Studios in Frome.

The first track is The Wailer’s Simmer Down, which was the groups first single released in 1963, featuring the then 18-year-old Bob Marley.

Critters’ singer Griff Daniels gives the track a more relaxed vibe than the original with a hushed delivery, but it’s a track you can still dance to with its funky bass and off beat drumming.

The Critters’ treatment is also given to Sly and the Family Stone’s classic Family Affair with gruff vocals from Steve Loudoun, similar to Bob Dylan circa 1979, which also feature on the band’s cover of Why Did You Do It by Stretch.

The Critters’ cover of You Don’t Love Me (No, no, no), which was a hit for Dawn Penn in both 1967 and 1994, more resembles the original version rather than the dancehall-influenced re-release with the horn section prominent throughout.

Gone is the reggae beat which gives the song a more sombre feel fitting it’s lyrics: 'You don't love me and I know now/ And I got no place to go now.'

The band’s cover of Gene Austin, who is considered to be the first ‘crooner’, on the track Lonesome Road is probably the band’s most interesting work as they make the 1920s crooner sound like Chuck Berry with an acoustic guitar.

Guitar and vocalist, Steve Loudoun, said: “Playing live is what it’s all about for us - it’s hard to get us in the studio.

“We all have short attention spans and we’re all in different bands, which that shows in The Critters’ setlist - we play a variety of genres because everyone’s has different musical tastes.

“We’ve given up the rock and roll lifestyle now and for us it’s just about having fun and gigging.”

You can see the band perform their lively set of roots influenced soul, reggae and country music at The Mash Tun in Woodmarsh, North Bradley near Trowbridge, tonight starting at 9pm.