Jody Lee Petty - Done My Time

Jody Lee Petty – Done My Time
2011, Jody Lee Petty

If you knew Jody Lee Petty as a child, you’d never guess he would turn into a country singer on the cusp of stardom; a star athlete, perhaps, but never a singer.  Petty’s childhood revolved around sports.  He eventually starred in basketball at Lenoir-Rhyne College; leading the nation in free-throw percentage his senior year.  After college, Petty went on to spend eight years on the professional beach volleyball circuit.  Next came modeling, when Petty was spotted by a talent scout in Miami.  This career led him to music, through appearances in several music videos, including LeAnn Rimes’ “Something’s Gotta Give.”  These days, Jody Petty is making his own music videos, in support of his dazzling new EP, Done My Time.

Jody Lee Petty gets things started with a sweet bit of modern country with classic embellishments in the form of "Country Song And A Bible Verse."  There's an authenticity here that's surprising, and a melody that practically sings itself to you.  Petty shows some of the same charisma that made Garth Brooks a superstar, and creates a commercial country number with big hit potential without managing to sound like a mass-produced pop/country maven.  "Done My Time" is a big time rocker in country clothing.  It's a great tune, but you can hear the heavy rock arrangement that wants to explode out of this number if you listen closely.  There's a dark, outlaw feel to the number, but a genteel aspect that is counterintuitive and intriguing.

If the right radio programmer ever gets hold of "I’ve Done My Time," Jody Lee Petty is going to be a massive superstar.  This tune will not get out of your head, and forget keeping your feet still.  Petty's blend of southern-fried rock is infectious, and features some of the best honky-tonk piano you'll hear in 2011.  What a horse meant to a cowboy in the olden days is now the province of his pick-up.  Petty gets to the point on "This Ole Truck," a love song to Detroit's greatest export.  It's a solid tune; a country ballad in form and function. 

"Shotgun" uses wordplay and a winking sense of humor to explore how an innocent summer tryst turns into a lifetime.  The title itself is a fond remembrance from a country boy that commemorates different points in his life in different ways.  This song is a charmer that will get under your skin with its blend of heart and humor.  Petty shows off his rock intentions, once again dressed in country style, with the upbeat anthem "Rockin' On The River".  Elements of Queen, The Doobie Brothers and Garth Brooks come together in unique fashion for a memorable summer hit-in-waiting. 

It's impossible to walk away from Done My Time and not be impressed with Jody Lee Petty.  His voice is classic country, and Petty shows a talent for writing country numbers with distinct pop sensibility and a secret rock n roll pedigree that doesn't quit.  Petty looks and sounds like a rock star in country clothing, and it wouldn't be surprising to look up one of these days and see his name at or near the top of the Billboard Country charts.  Songs such as "Country Song And A Bible Verse" and "I’ve Done My Time" have gold record written all over them, and there isn't a weak song in the bunch.  With Done My Time, Jody Lee Petty proves it's possible to write honest country music with massive commercial appeal.  With the right breaks, Petty will be rocking the country airwaves for years to come.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Jody Lee Petty at www.myspace.com/jodyleepetty.  Done My Time is a forthcoming release.  Keep checking Petty’s website for updates.

Eric Church - Chief

Eric Church - Chief
2011, EMI Records Nashville

Three full length albums into his career and Eric Church already has several top-20 singles to his name, a gold album, and a new album, Chief, that has already hit #1 on the US Album Charts and US Country charts.  Church almost gave up music at one point, encouraged by the father of a fiancée to take a job in the corporate world.  In the end, Church spurned the boardroom, and romance, and headed to Nashville.  Now on top of the country world with Chief, Church wouldn't have it any other way.

Chief opens with "Creeping", a dark and entertaining outlaw country tune with pure rock attitude.  The song is as catchy as anything you've heard on CMT in a long time, and features a muscular guitar-based sound that's ready to cross over to rock stations as well.  "Drink In My Hand" is a modern take on the old adage that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  This one is destined to be a bar/party favorite, and seems a likely candidate to storm up the country charts if released as a single.  "Keep On" sticks with the catchy outlaw country motif, with an arrangement that sounds like borrows heavily from Garth Brooks' "Rodeo".  Church shows his softer side with the third-person love ballad "Like Jesus Does", employing a 1960's-style pop/country sound that works surprisingly well.  The songwriting here is crisp and clean, and Church hits you with a sweet melody that rolls over you like water.

"Homeboy" is an attempt by the brother who stayed behind to reach out to a prodigal son who left home under a veil of acrimony and violence.  It's a classic tale told in the lingo of the day, and shows a surprising depth that one might not guess from some of Church's darker, more rock-oriented numbers.  "Country Music Jesus" is a call for revival in country music.  Elements of rock, country and gospel blend here in a lighthearted and infectious tune you'll be humming for days.  Church pays fealty to his betters on "Jack Daniels", citing one opponent who always leaves him worse for the wear.  "Springsteen" is a song of remembrance of teenage summer nights and young love.  Melodies are the focal point that brings it all back, in this case the melodies of Springsteen's 1980's pop radio heyday.  Church explores the emotions of finding your ex is engaged in the angry-yet-infectious "I'm Getting Stoned".  Church's arrangement is angry, roiling rock and roll, and is laced with lyrics full of dark humor and bile.  Chief leaves the stage with the enigmatic and curt ending of "Over When It's Over", a matter of fact post-mortem that deals more with the facts than post-relationship analysis.  The rather abrupt ending to the song will leave some listeners hanging and waiting for a full resolution, but you'll have to wait for the next album to hear more.

Not since Garth Brooks has one artist so completely mixed an appreciation and respect for country music with distinctive pop sensibility and rock and roll attitude.  Chief reaches across the boundaries of country and rock and roll, crumples them into a scraggly ball and tosses them aside.  Eric Church goes where he wants, evoking dark thoughts, honest, confused emotions and a sense that life is lived in the honest margins of human imperfection.  Chief is a smashing success, due all the commercial success is it currently experiencing.  Don't miss this one.  Chief is a Wildy’s World Certified Desert Island Disc.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Eric Church at www.ericchurch.com or www.myspace.com/ericchurch.  Chief is available from Amazon.com as a CD or Download, and is also available via iTunes.

Sherman Ewing – Single Room Saloon

Sherman Ewing – Single Room Saloon
2011, Okindalia Records

Sherman Ewing walked through hell and lives to tell the tale.  Tell it he does on his latest album, Single Room Saloon.  The Columbia University grad, who once played in a band called Sherman And The Bureaucrats with John “Jojo” Hermann of Widespread Panic, grew up in British boarding schools during the birth of the punk movement.  His songwriting evokes some of that attitude infused into a blend of pop, rock and country.  With an all-star band at his back (members have worked with Bob Dylan, Spin Doctors, Hank Williams, Jr., Phish, Keith Richards and Widespread Panic), Ewing opens an emotional vein for all the world to hear.

Single Room Saloon opens with “Heaven Waits”, an intriguing commentary on materialism and the corruption it breeds.  Ewing points to a light in the distance in a delicious blend of country guitars and sophisticated rock n roll.  “Single Room Saloon” has a distinctly urgent feel; imagine the Beatles playing in an Americana style.  The result is an edgy sound that will stay with you.  “Grey Skies Blue” is catchy, but its Ewing’s guitar work that most stands out.  It’s a tune about that one person who makes even the darkest day bright, and brings to mind some of the better works of Wilco.  “Flatlands” is a dreamy Americana blend that’s as pleasing to the ear as it is pointed in message.

“Walk On” is all about making your way in the world and finding your place.  It’s a delicious bit of soulful, buzzy rock and roll.  Things slow down for a couple of songs, but Ewing gets back on track with “Bye Bye America”.  Ewing laments those who would stand by and watch America’s decline as long as they get what they feel is coming to them.  Ewing keeps up the social commentary on “The Mission”, delving into the growing gap between rich and poor and the inability of the latter to keep up.   Ewing closes with “Marilyn”, an inconspicuous final track that plays like an epilogic vector.

Sherman Ewing shows a distinctive ability in the crafting of songs on Single Room Saloon.  The material presented here is, for the most part, cogently written and melodically sound.  Ewing’s special talent is in the musical details, which he wraps around the melodic core in layers both distinctive and refined.  Not all of the songs here work on all levels, but there’s more than enough here to make Single Room Saloon worth your time.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Sherman Ewing at www.shermanewing.com.  Single Room Saloon is available digitally from Amazon.com or iTunes.

Mike McCarroll – Honky Tonk Dreams

Mike McCarroll – Honky Tonk Dreams
2010, Mike McCarroll Productions

Mike McCarroll was indoctrinated into music at an early age, dancing around the kitchen with his mom to Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” and “All Shook Up” as a toddler.  It wasn’t until enlisting in the army during the Vietnam War that McCarroll picked up a guitar and began to have a sense he could create music.  In the 1960’s and 1970’s it was rock n roll that lit McCarroll’s lamp.  By the late 1970’s McCarroll had made the jump to southern rock, and in the 1980’s was reborn of country music.  The birth of the alternative country movement awoke something in McCarroll that had been there all along.  He began to write country/rock tunes for his own enjoyment, and by 2008 he had released his debut album, the critically acclaimed At The Crossroads.  McCarroll returned in 2010 with Honky Tonk Dreams, refining his outlaw country sound and putting appealing distance between himself and the commercial country pack.

Honky Tonk Dreams opens with “Cash Crop”, a low key southern country-rock tune that explores the difficulties faced by small time farmers and the lengths they must at times go through to survive.  The farm’s new lifeblood grows in line between the rows of corn.  McCarroll sounds like a cross between Paul Gross (Due South, Men With Brooms) and Garth Brooks on “The Devil In The Mirror” while exploring the dark, unknown side of human nature.  “Honky Tonk Dream” finds McCarroll channeling the spirit of Jerry Reed in a good-time tune that looks forward to the weekend as a way to get through the week.  “I Had It All” is a song of heartbreak, lamenting a love lost and the fact that he let her slip away. 

“If The Devil Brought You Roses” is a stellar mix of country, rock and blues.  McCarroll, in character as a less-than-ideal man, asks for another chance, or at least one more roll in the hay.  This mid-tempo creation is as catchy as anything you’ll hear on country radio, but the level of personality and commitment in the performance offered here is striking.  This song will stick with you.  “It’s All About You” is a kiss off, country style.  The title takes on a double meaning in a tongue-in-cheek turns that’s highly entertaining and fun.  “Merle Haggard Jack Daniels & Me” is all about drinking, classic country music and the sort of brotherly commiseration that can only occur at your neighborhood bar.

McCarroll stands up for Indie artists everywhere on “Pop-Style Cookie-Cutter Formula”, informing pop/country music executives what they can do with the songs they want him to play.  The honky-tonk arrangement is laced with the rebellious feel of early rock n roll.  “Southern Pride” is an ode to southern rock and some of its greatest purveyors.  McCarroll takes another shot at the music industry here, lamenting labels’ determination to essentially ignore a market for which there is still significant interest.  Along the way McCarroll references some of his own influences, including The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Charlie Daniels Band, the Atlantic Rhythm Section and the Charlie Daniels Band.  “Waitin’” is a bit of light-heard, mid-tempo country fun.  “Waitin’ On The Whiskey To Work” takes a slightly darker turn about drowning your sorrows.  This isn’t a light drinking tune; it’s a serious, all hands on deck get drunk and forget song.  “What You Gonna Do” finds McCarroll back in the honky-tonk, leaning dangerously close to early rock n roll with a musical blend with elements of Garth Brooks, Hank Jr. and Jerry Lee Lewis.  This is a potential country hit, being the most commercial tune on the album without the air of trying to be.

Mike McCarroll takes a lifetime of musical influences and channels it through his own quintessence to create a sound that is simultaneously modern and classic.  Picking up the mantle from gentlemen such as Hank Williams Jr. and Garth Brooks, Mike McCarroll does his own thing, his way.  McCarroll has a way of blending intelligent lyrics, the irreverent spirit of rock and roll and first class musicianship into songs that are eminently listenable and call you back again and again.  McCarroll’s attitude toward the pop/country ways of Nashville virtually assures that Honky Tonk Dreams probably won’t get the airplay or national attention it deserves, but is a fine example of the sort of great music that happens on the fringes of Nashville once the bills have been paid.  Honky Tonk Dreams is one of the finest country albums to surface in 2010.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5) 

Learn more about Mike McCarroll at www.mikemccarroll.com.  Honky Tonk Dreams is available as a Honky Tonk Dreams or Honky Tonk Dreams from Amazon.com.  Digital versions are also available via iTunes.

The Grascals – The Grascals & Friends – Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin

The Grascals – The Grascals & Friends – Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin
2011, BluGrascal Records/The Cracker Barrel

The Grascals had quite the year in 2010, releasing the wildly successful The Famous Lefty Flynn’s and earning 10 SPBGMA Award nominations.  This after winning Bluegrass Band Of The Year in February of 2010.  Rather than sit back and celebrate, The Grascals charge forth into 2011 with a dynamic new album entitled The Grascals & Friends – Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin.  Available only through Cracker Barrel Restaurants, The Grascals & Friends unites the band with some great musical names such as Dolly Parton, Dierks Bentley, Tom T. Hall, Charlie Daniels, Brad Paisley and Hank Williams, Jr. 

The Grascals & Friends opens with a great cover of “Tiger By The Tail”, featuring Brad Paisley.  Offered with strong energy and superb musicianship, this is the perfect opener.  Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” is up next, featuring Dierks Bentley.  The song is well performed and attempts to capture Cash’s mystique.  In this the song is not entirely successful, but on its own it’s a fine listen.  Dolly Parton sits in on “The Pain Of Lovin’ You” and “I Am Strong”.  “The Pain Of Loving You” is overly reserved but solidly performed.  “I Am Strong” isn’t convincing, but musically is all a Grascals fan would expect.  “Louisiana Saturday Night” has a down home feel and celebrates the simple life.  The arrangement is full of gorgeous harmonies and has an entrancing quality that will grab you.

“The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” features legend Tom T. Hall and is a solid old school story song.  “White Lightning” sounds a bit like Chuck Berry done bluegrass style.  The song features Darryl Worley and the amazing fiddle work of Jeremy Abshire. The inimitable Charlie Daniels sits in on “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”.  The song loses a bit of fire in the translation, but is solid all around.  “Mr. Bojangles” is performed with an air of quiet reverence.  Joe Nichols sits in amidst a sweet arrangement focused on bringing out the simple beauty of the melody.  Hank Williams Jr. stops by for “Born To Boogie/All My Rowdy Friends” in perhaps the highest energy outing on the album.  The arrangement offered here steps back from the almost rock n roll feel of the original, but loses nothing in the translation.  “Cracker Barrel Swing” shows off The Gracals’ instrumental chops in a relaxed, laid-back setting while throwing a nod to the album’s sponsor/distributor.  Grascals And Friends closes with a bonus track of “I Am Strong” that fails to make up ground on the previously offered version.

Grascals And Friends mostly delivers on the promise of the dynamic pairings it offers.  The Grascals are uncanny in their ability to craft arrangements that sometimes seem more natural than the original song versions.  It seems likely that the run of awards will continue for The Grascals.  And if the food from The Cracker Barrel isn’t reason enough for you to stop by, Grascals And Friends certainly is.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about The Grascals at http://www.grascals.com/ or www.myspace.com/thegrascals.  The Grascals & Friends drops on January 10, 2011, and will be available through Cracker Barrel restaurants.  A portion of the proceeds from The Grascals & Friends will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospitals.