Tag Archives: Texas country

Album Review: Jason Eady–I Travel On

Rating: 9/10

Jason Eady’s is a name I want to shout from rooftops and post on billboards, and if you ask me to name an underrated traditional artist getting criminally overlooked in 2018, I’ll say Eady every time. If Keith Whitley was his generation’s shot at Haggard and Jones, as Garth Brooks stated in his Country Music Hall of Fame induction, then Jason Eady is this generation’s shot at Keith Whitley, with a voice so pure and filled with emotion and absolutely born to sing traditional country music. There is a comfort in his voice and a talent in his pen rivaled by few, and this remains true album after album, as he continues to project great music out into the atmosphere without ever a lapse in quality. And yet the mainstream will never take notice, and even many independent fans won’t pay proper attention and give him the respect he is due, for Eady is not the country soul hybrid of Chris Stapleton or the rock/Americana blend of Jason Isbell, or even the upbeat Red dirt of Turnpike Troubadours. He’s too country for the success and recognition enjoyed by those artists, and it’s a shame because in a just world, Jason Eady would be a household name.

The pen of Jason Eady, as I mentioned, is his greatest strength. On any given day, you can pop in any of his previous three records and find something new and hidden in the lyrics. His turns of phrase are sneaky and riddled with deeper meaning, infused with subtlety and depth of emotion so that even months later, there’s something fresh to uncover. And yet, for all that, this new album isn’t really that way, the writing being more straightforward and direct. It’s not your typical Jason Eady record in that sense; the songwriting is more simple, though still great, and there’s not really a moment where you’re taken completely aback by the brilliance and poetry of a lyric like on some of his more recent material.

Yet I Travel On earns its place alongside all those other great Jason eady albums, and even above many of them–in fact, I would argue this is his best album aside from Daylight and Dark, which is my favorite record of all time–and it’s because of the sound and the instrumentation. seeing Eady live is a special experience and one that any fan of his or of live music in general should seek out. And now we get to hear this live touring band on an album, except made even better with the added harmonies of Courtney Patton that enhance every Jason Eady release. The whole thing was cut live in the studio, everything feeling loose and organic and vibrant. It’s all infectious and upbeat, the way you hear these songs out on the road. Bluegrass player Kevin Foster, who plays lead guitar and fiddle in Eady’s touring band, always adds so much to these songs live, and it’s great to hear that unleashed on a record. Not to mention the added bluegrass flair from Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, two badass bluegrass pickers in their own right called upon to add flavor and vitality to this record.

And it was just the right time to add all these flourishes too, for as its title suggests, this album is very much a tale of the road, of restless characters passing through on their journeys. As I said, there isn’t one song or lyric that will blow you away, but the whole thing is injected with this rambling spirit that just works so well. We have songs like “That’s Alright” and the title track, where the narrators are trying to find themselves as they travel from place to place. In “She Had to Run,” our heroine is escaping abuse, leaving as fast as she possibly can because that’s the only thing left for her to do. And then there’s “The Climb,” where the man’s journey is metaphorical–he’s following a dream, and he’s reached the point on the mountain where he’s gone too far to turn back but can’t really reach the top. It’s just such a simple yet profound line when Eady sings, “he’s not lost, he just don’t know what to do.” I think we find ourselves in this position so often in our journey, at a crossroads and not knowing which way to turn.

It all comes to a head musically and lyrically in “Pretty When I Die,” where all these bluegrass hints and flourishes finally come bursting out, and all the energy and uncertainty of the road comes pouring out right along with it. In this little tune, Eady declares that he doesn’t want to take an easy route or travel on a road he’s already been on before, and that at the end of this whole journey of life, he wants to “look like a man who tried.” He wants a story for every line on his face when he dies. The introspective companion to this song, and the one that shows off the best instance of Jason’s writing on this project, is “Happy Man,” wherein he lets us know that if he dies today, he would die happy, and that he’s thankful for all of the blessings in his life.

Jason Eady has been blessed with the kind of comfort and healing in his voice that almost can’t be explained, a comfort which makes his stories ones that you have to listen to over and over. When he sings of traveling through life and the struggles and challenges that that entails, you just want to pull up a chair and listen, and draw from that wisdom. There is a thoughtfulness in his pen that is unmatched, and even if it doesn’t come out in overly deep lyrics like in some of his earlier output, it’s there in the beauty and simplicity of a song like “Always a Woman.” It’s that comfort and wisdom that draws you into any Jason Eady record, but I Travel On sets itself apart because it’s also infectious and catchy and able to be replayed for months, even after you’ve been captured that first time by the writing.

As an Eady fan, I do wish there had been a moment here that blew me away lyrically, and for longtime fans, there isn’t really a moment like that anywhere. But this album holds its own in his discography because it brings an energy and musicality that didn’t exist on any of Eady’s other records. Sometimes there’s something to be said for simplicity, for just singing three chords and the truth, and that’s what Jason Eady delivers with I Travel On. And this is the album to show people who don’t know his music, for this is the one that can bring people in and turn them on to the greatness we’ve all had the privilege of knowing. Now go and listen to this fine record.

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Album Review: Josh Ward–More Than I Deserve

Rating: 7/10

For a long time, I couldn’t think of how to write about this album. It’s not a masterpiece lyrically, and it’s not reinventing the wheel sonically. But like Randall King and Shotgun Rider have already done this year, Josh Ward delivers a solid, lighthearted album that calls to a specific time period in country music. It took me awhile to put my finger on why I enjoy this record so much, and the answer is astonishingly simple: it’s the sound that I love, the 90’s country where many like me find their nostalgia. We’ve got people like Joshua Hedley and Zephaniah Ohora trying to recreate and, in the case of Ohora, modernize the 50’s and 60’s styles, bringing the countrypolitan sound to the modern ear. We’ve got countless people trying to keep the 70’s outlaw era alive, to the point the term “outlaw” has been run through the ringer, and the music is often almost a parody of itself, and we’ve got others pushing the envelope in modern country in order to create something forward-thinking that still respects the roots of the genre. But until recently, there haven’t been many people embracing the 90’s neotraditional sound, and that’s ironic and unfortunate when you take into consideration that so many of the listeners and fans who loved that style are the ones who divorced themselves from the mainstream in the last decade because they miss those country sounds. The 90’s and early 00’s are when so many of us came to country music in the first place, and it’s a shame that more people haven’t been carrying this sound forward into the present.

I am certainly one of these people who grew up on 90’s country, and I miss that style more than I can say. Brianna heard this album before me, and she said that I’d like it because Josh ward sounded like a “twangy Travis Tritt.” I’d heard ward before but hadn’t made that connection, and she was right. And maybe that explains my enjoyment of this album–it’s so refreshing to see this sound being embraced in 2018 and not forgotten or relegated to the realm of nostalgia. You have no idea how much you’re missing this style of country, or how much it’s needed in modern music, until you hear it come through your speakers like a long-lost friend.

It’s not just that it’s embraced by Ward, though, it’s that he interprets this sound so well and makes it sound fresh and natural in 2018. It’s impossible not to smile at “Home Away From Home,” a fun little ode to his favorite bar that would have been a radio hit in 1996. “Another Heartache” features some lovely piano as Ward sings of not wanting to complicate things with the woman he met tonight on the dance floor and wants to make sure they’re on the same page about where this is going–“I don’t need another heartache, so baby, let’s don’t fall in love.” “Say Hello to Goodbye” is another in a long line of country heartbreak songs, but it’s also a reminder that some of them don’t need any analyzing and are just simply good songs. The same goes for the steel-soaked “One More shot of Whiskey.” As mentioned, you aren’t going to be blown away by the lyrics of this project, but it’s just so solid and comforting. I said this about shotgun Rider’s Palo Duro, and the same thing applies here–it’s not a record for thinking but rather a record for drinking, and we absolutely need both.

There’s one lyrical exception, though, which offers some real depth, and that comes in the album’s crown jewel, “The devil Don’t Scare Me.” This one is also a heartbreak song, but it’s told from the angle of the narrator having once been scared of God and petrified in church pews as he heard about hell and fire and brimstone, but now that she’s left, nothing, not even the devil or death, can get to him. “I ain’t afraid of dyin’ ’cause I lost the one thing I was livin’ for, the devil don’t scare me anymore.” This one is certainly the highlight of More Than I Deserve and is the one you should check out if you only pick a single track. This one’s also featured on our May playlist.

This is not some groundbreaking masterpiece, but it’s not a groundbreaking masterpiece you want playing while you sit around drinking with friends on a Saturday night. It’s a record like this one, and this is why we do need both, and why not everything has to be a piece of musical genius. Josh Ward brings us a solid, uncomplicated slice of 90’s style country music, and if you need that sound in your life, definitely check this out. Good, comforting, refreshingly country record.

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Album Review – Randall King (self-titled)

Rating: 7/10

If you’re looking for someone new to follow in the traditional country scene, meet Randall King. This self-titled debut album really fulfills any fan of the genre’s requirements. It features plenty of steel guitar, nicely varied tempos, and his voice is quite good. I just knew I was going to like this album once I heard his Southern drawl and the upbeat tempo of the first track, “Freightline”.

It’s no surprise, then, that “Freightline” is one of my favorites off of the whole album. It’s a song all about how the main character, a trucker, simply wants to get back home to his partner. She’s waiting for him, the least the trucking line could do is work faster. I just found this song a breath of fresh air, and it makes for a solid album opener. Another of my favorites off of the album is the slower “Mirror, Mirror”. It’s more introspective, with the character in the song looking into a mirror. It’s reflecting him, the biggest fool, who’s somehow managed to lose the woman he loved. Randall King’s voice really sells this song, and you get to see just how vocally talented he is. The steel guitar is amazing on this track, but since this is true for most of this album, I’ll try not to elaborate on it too much.

While we’re on the subject of songs wherein the main character isn’t perfect, there’s “Cool Under Pressure”. While it’s more upbeat, the character is saying how he has to hide his nerves around a girl he likes. I didn’t like it at first, because it seemed to me that he wasn’t being himself. When I really thought about it, though, I found the song a breath of fresh air. The man is admitting that he’s not smooth and that he doesn’t actually have the girl yet. I liked that a lot.

My absolute favorite song on the album is “When He Knows Me”. It’s about a truck driver who is losing his memory, told from the perspective of a friend or relative. It’s an incredibly sad song, wherein Randall King describes how some days the man remembers, and some days he doesn’t. The line that really gets me here is “those precious moments are getting fewer and farther between, when he knows me”. There’s also the verse where the narrator describes how he’s been mixed up with a field hand, a foe, and a friend. It really is one of the saddest songs I’ve heard all year. If you listen to anything off of this album, make it this.

While I’ve highlighted my favorites, the rest of the album is nicely varied between happy and sad, fast and slow. There isn’t really one song I hate. If I had to pick my least favorite song here, I think it’d have to be “Tuggin’ On My Heartstrings”. Which is sad, because I love it instrumentally. It’s fun, upbeat, with awesome fiddle and steel. The lyrics, though, is where I take issue. It’s about a man who’s in love with a woman, and that woman is changing literally everything about his life, from his friends to what he watches on TV. I just think that’s stereotypical and wrong. That said, I can’t help liking the melody, tempo, and everything musical about this song.

Overall, this album is solid. Not every song is a standout, but Randall King has a really good voice. He’s definitely got the talent to pull off the variety found here. With songs like “When He Knows Me”, and “Mirror Mirror On The Wall”, I’d say he’s one to watch. The fact that the whole album wasn’t slow and sad just makes it that much better, and I definitely recommend checking this out.

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Album Review: Mason Lively–Stronger Ties

Rating: 6/10

For the people that like to get caught up in the rating and not focus on anything else, six is always the weirdest number to assign. Sometimes, like with Chris Stapleton’s latest record, it can be a mark of disappointment after higher expectations. Often with brand-new artists like Mason Lively, it’s a sign of potential. I debated for a long time whether to write a full review for this or whether to feature some of it in Memorable Songs–I went with a review because while I think Lively has things to improve upon, there’s so much promise in this debut, and I’m excited about this artist more than the album. The Texas/Red Dirt scene has such a way with cultivating new artists and letting them develop their own unique sound, and that, more than really anything else about it, is the thing that separates it from Nashville. It’s not the quality of the music or the style, it’s the sense of individuality and originality so carefully preserved and passed down. Few Nashville artists get the chance to develop into themselves, either because of labels dictating them or else being dropped before they can find themselves as artists, but in the Texas scene, new artists are allowed to grow and come into their own.

Although he hasn’t quite come into his own yet with the debut Stronger Ties, Mason Lively has laid a nice foundation here. Tracks like “Heavy Toll” and “Early Grave” display a fine sense of himself sonically, both residing in that traditional Red Dirt space of blending country and rock to make something unique. “Early Grave” has that classic mix of fiddles and rock guitars so common on these records. Both these tracks also do the best job of showcasing Mason’s charisma and personality, and it’s good that they are the opening selections. These are the two I would have chosen had I selected this for the Memorable Songs feature, and it’s these two I’d suggest if you only listen to one or two songs from this record. His personality also comes out on “The Ballad of the Broken Heart,” another stronger moment on the album.

Lively is best at these more up-tempo, country rock tunes, but there are also some nice quieter moments. “Worry About Nothing” sees him vowing to stop focusing on everyone else’s needs without paying attention to his own and saying he’ll pray about everything rather than worrying. There’s some nice harmonica to add some character to this one. The fiddle shows up again in “Right Back to You,” as the narrator keeps returning to the one he loves despite the fact that he said he never would–“two wrongs make a right back to you” is a cool line and one of the flashes of potential in his songwriting peppered throughout the record. The wistful “Hard to Let Go” is probably the strongest of the softer moments, laced with some lovely steel to accentuate it.

Songwriting is both this record’s greatest strength and at times a weakness. Most of these songs are well-written and impressive for a debut, especially for a debut by a twenty-year-old artist. It’s just that, similar to Joshua Hedley’s recent album, a lot of it feels like a great take on the Red dirt style more than actual original expression by Mason Lively. Incidentally, I think Lively’s writing is better than that on Hedley’s album, but they share a similar problem of needing some originality and development. “Hard to Let Go,” for example, is a paradox; it’s a great song, but he sings about having been in this relationship for three years and now coming to the conclusion that their pride ruined it. It’s at once very mature and pretty well-written while also being slightly hard to believe. It’s the same for many of these songs, as the world-weary references to the road sprinkled in various places just don’t ring true at this stage of his career. This is essentially the entire theme of “Heavy Toll,” but that’s also one of the album’s strongest tracks–so it’s all very much a paradox and a difficult criticism. But the cool thing about it all is that in this scene, Lively will get the freedom to grow into these songs and into more original expression, and then his songwriting will shine all the more.

Still, on this record, the songs themselves are good, and people will enjoy this. The writing and presence of Mason Lively have both consistently impressed me on this album, and it’s why I chose to write about this. Stronger Ties feels like a solid beginning rather than a spectacular triumph, but I am excited about this artist and eager to see where Mason Lively will go from here.

Promising debut and certainly an artist to keep on your radar.

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Album Review: Palo Duro by Shotgun Rider

Rating: 7/10

With so many great and important albums coming out last Friday and things happening behind the scenes for me personally, it was going to take serious motivation for me to actually add another record to my list, at least not to a list of stuff I’d actually get to anytime soon. Maybe the debut album by Texas country group Shotgun Rider would go on the never-ending back burner, ready to be pulled out on a slow release week in the future. I had no intention of actually getting to it quickly–and then motivation came swiftly for me when I heard that the lead singer sounded vocally like a more polished Gary Allan. For one, that’s a really specific comparison, and for another, Gary Allan has one of the most distinctive voices in modern country music, and imagining a more polished, less gritty version of his unique tone was intriguing. I put on Palo Duro, and indeed, it’s as if the lead singer, Logan Sanford, were the love child of Gary Allan and Mike Eli of the Eli Young Band. Fans of either of these vocalists should check this out. Since I am a fan of both, this immediately had my attention, and it turned out to be a really solid Texas country debut from Shotgun rider.

Just like Red Shahan’s album, this record is named for a landmark in West Texas, in this case the majestic Palo Duro canyon stretching for miles across the Texas panhandle. However, unlike Shahan’s record, this album is a more polished blend of country and rock; rather than rugged grit, this album goes for a smoother, cleaner sound. Also, where Culberson County is a record for thinking, this one’s a record for drinking, representing the lighter, Aaron Watson/Josh Abbott side of Texas country. This relies on strong hooks and catchy melodies more than hard-hitting lyrics. That’s not to say there aren’t some smart lyrics here, but they’re not really the biggest focus with this music.

But there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with solid, hook-driven music; in fact, Americana could use more of it. It provides a nice balance between deeper albums whenever it’s done right, and this record is most certainly done right. It’s a hard album to write about because there are only so many ways to say this is solid, and you can’t really analyze the lyrics all that much. But these songs, though not especially outstanding lyrically, are enhanced by Sanford’s vocal delivery, by hooks that quickly stick in your head, and by melodies which just make much of this album infectious.

The production goes a long way to separate this from other similar albums as well. It does a great job blending the classic sounds of Texas country, with equal parts crying steel and screaming electric guitar. Most of these tracks are also built around minor chords and/or darker keys, so there’s an element of seriousness to songs that might otherwise be lightweight. “Texas Rain,” probably the strongest selection here, does an excellent job building throughout the song to convey the storm of emotions this narrator is facing, as he can’t help but love a woman who comes and goes just like the West Texas rain, never staying long enough to actually provide relief. And sometimes, it’s just the passion and sincerity of Sanford’s delivery that makes a song work, like on “Lucky Him,” as the main character laments the fact that his ex is finding everything she ever dreamed of with another man. George Strait is cited as one of this band’s main influences, and that is evident here in this track, which sounds like a modern version of “You Look so Good in Love.”

As mentioned, the lyrics are secondary, but for the most part, they are solid. This is a debut, and it’s a strong one, but Shotgun Rider can certainly improve their songwriting on future releases since most of this doesn’t really go deeper than the surface. Still, except for the last three tracks, the writing works well enough. It’s on these last three, and particularly on the closer, “The Night Don’t Love You,” that the writing really becomes a liability, and this serves to end a really promising album on a bit of a whimper.

This is not a record that’s going to blow you away or give you some profound new revelation about life. But it works well for what it is, a hook-driven slice of modern Texas country music. We need more albums like this providing energy and stepping up to balance out the great songwriting efforts by other artists. We need more music like this to prove you can make a good album without being especially deep or artsy or making some grand statement. In a perfect world, this is the kind of music we’d be championing in the mainstream, and in that fantasy world, it would do well. Really strong debut, and I’m excited to see where Shotgun Rider will go from here.

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