| Larry Joe Taylor...Heart Of The Matter Boatfolk Records...*** Larry Joe Taylor is a Texan who wears many a hat. He�s a singer/songwriter, recording artist, record producer and promoter of Texas music. He also owns his own record company, �Boatfolk Records� and publishing company, �Texibbean Publishing�. He�s played and worked with some of the best Texas musicians and songwriters around including: Ray Wylie Hubbard, Rusty Weir, Terri Hendrix, Pat Green,...and the list just goes on. His 6th album �Heart Of The Matter� incorporates all of the styles exhibited on his previous releases including: country, blues, reggae and rock & roll and a touch of street corner doo-wop. I get a definite Guy Clark influence going on, which isn�t a bad thing since the similarities aren�t blatant; and then, there�s the Texas version of Jimmy Buffett thing going on, which also is not a bad thing, since it�s a twist and not a strict imitation. Several of the songs on the album were co-written with Davin James, a great Texas artist in his own right (see following review), and these are some of the best cuts on the album, although the other cuts aren�t shabby at all by a long shot. �Robbin� Peter� is an upbeat, rockin song about taking the easy way out and not paying the price due. �Two Steppin On The Beach� is a great duet with Terri Hendrix that just makes you want to grab your gal, get in your car, and head out to the shore with a bottle of wine. �Back Before The War� is a great song about post-divorce life and the last song �Coconuts� is another great �Buffett-Texas� hybrid that really works. If your a fan of Beach Music, Jimmy Buffett, boats and top-notch Texas songwriting, than make it a point to check this album out, you won�t be disappointed. Devon James...Magnolia Bullnettle Records...***1/2 Devon James was born in Jackson, Mississippi, but spent his childhood in Louisiana and Arkansas before heading off to Texas. He was playing honky-tonks before he was old enough to drive, and his new album, �Magnolia� is real, unadorned country with a contemporary southern rock edge. You won�t be hearing this stuff on the radio-and that shameful fact just goes to show what a sorry state country radio is in today. Devon�s vocals are incomparable and gritty, able to run the gauntlet from country to blues to gospel and Dixieland without a hitch, and his barrel-house guitar playing just simply kicks ass. Songs like �Magnolia� and �Ten Foot Pole� are guitar driven, flat-out country stompers that are one step away from hard rock with their swagger and hoe-down velocity. �The One That Got Away� is a great tear-jerking honky-tonk number that sounds like something George Jones would have loved to have gotten his hands on during his mid-seventies period. Devon gives a righteous nod to the Crescent City with the one-two punch of �N�awlins Night� and �Mardi Gras Mamma� both of which will have you digging out your old bunch of colored beads. We also get to pay witness to a great, infectious gospel number �Washed In The Blood� that keeps things interesting. This swaggering, country-rock gem of an album deserves and demands wide-spread notice, and if country radio doesn�t thinks it�s good enough for them to play: well...fuck �em! David Childers...A Good Way To Die Singlewing Records...**** The cover of �A Good Way To Die� shows an actual photo of David Childers on stage bleeding profusely from a wound on his head after being struck by an over-zealous spectator�s beer bottle. This image pretty much sums up the feel of this album, though some rays of light do shine through the dark aspects intermittently. A sense of danger and uneasiness pervade Childer�s songwriting, and he paints with broad strokes creating interesting characterizations and imaginative, cinematic imagery. This album is like the sound track to a great, lost Sam Pickenpagh film, or a bloody spaghetti western from the late sixties. It�s an album all about trains, guns, dirty dim bars, bad coffee and broken hearts. It�s about fighting, bleeding, drinking, puking and pissing. It�s an album about living and dying. It also demands repeated listening in order to absorb it�s sometimes complex tales of life, death, escape, torment and redemption. The musicianship and vocals are more than competent due to the fact that they illustrate the lyrics without trying to explain themselves. With real artistic expression, the final work is often better warts and all. Style-wise, Childers incorporates country, bluegrass, Texas cowboy, juke-joint blues and Louisiana sounds into his vision, but the album is also sprinkled here and there with less definable touches including various world music sounds. Several instrumentals weaved throughout �A Good Way To Die� give the complete package a sound-track quality that adds to the album as a whole, elevating it above your average singer-songwriter release. �A Good Way To Die� comes across like a conceptualized double-album, though it never wears thin. Instead of going into various track by track descriptions or lyric samples which wouldn�t hold a candle to the full listening experience, I�ll simply advise you to go out and get this one. You�ll be in for one hell of a ride so fasten your seat belts. |