This is a great album. Lyrically intelligent; musically
honed from years of writing and performing - this might well be a career peak.
East Housten Blues
sets us up with that quality that marks one out from the other – fine guitar
work throughout, harmonies in the chorus, spunk in the beat. Next Reckless is into folk, a descending
melody and song about drinking and women, judging
by the evidence I’m feeling reckless.
Life Without Susannah
remembers and regrets, and It Ain’t Over
is an interesting immediate companion as Crowell duets with his former wife
Roseanne Cash, a beautiful accompaniment when she does perform, Crowell writing
my heart ain’t the problem, it’s my mind
that’s a total mess, John Paul Jones joining in too, so a triplet in fact.
That’s the impact overall – these, if not confessional,
apparently honest songs merging truth from experience and what we know about
life having lived it for quite a while.
There is another duet, this time with Sheryl Crow, I’m Tied to Ya, a powerful plaintive
song that has Crowell in the finest of emotive singing, so an affecting,
perfectly-crafted song, and lyrically strong,
And stand up guys have knocked me down before
But to rise with you above the petty politics of bliss
I'll gladly make my heart an open door
but this actually follows my favourite on the album I Don’t Care Anymore which is a righteous
rouser in its assertive and defiant reflection on past and present, regret
again pervading the narrative where fortune or fame – so experiencing both – is
ultimately meaningless as it is what it is in the here and now. The Country rap
as it drives pulsing to its end is superb.
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