Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys
Empty House
Bloodshot Records

by Kevin J. Hosey
The Kansas City honky tonker, with stops here in Buffalo and in New Mexico, supplies 11 more songs of hard country and honky tonk on “Empty House,” with only a fleeting touch of rock in some places. The CD starts with “The Good Ain’t Gone,” straight-ahead honky tonk, with Hobart singing that he realizes that she still loves him even though he left her, and now he can’t forget her and wants to reunite. Solomon Hofer’s pedal steel guitar and Betse Ellis’ fiddle sound awfully nice here. The tables are partly turned on “Don’t Make Me Break Your Heart,” but things are less friendly as Hobart’s woman is mistreating him, so he tells her to stop before he returns the favor and/or leaves; the slow to mid-tempo shuffle is highlighted by more fine fiddle from Ellis. “Every Night I Leave You in My Mind” is slower, more sensual honky tonk (particularly due to Hobart’s classic voice and Blackjack Snow’s bass); Hobart knows he wants to and should leave his woman, but he can’t seem to except in his head. He hasn’t been wronged by her, just fallen out of love, and his feelings are backed by smart steel guitar from Hofer. His woman certainly soured Hobart on “It Won’t Be Long (And I’ll Be Hating You),” a Johnny Paycheck song; her mean and bitter actions are making a mockery of their love and left him angry. Hofer’s dreamy steel guitar is later countered by a neat Telecaster solo from J.B. Morris. One real treat and maybe my favorite tune is the CD closer, “Black Iron Bridge,” a short, powerful song with just spare acoustic guitar and Hobart singing quite low and mournful. He’s thinking of the bridge where he first kissed and proposed to his wife, but after she drowned in a flood he’s thinking of jumping from the bridge and joining her. Bloodshot Records can be contacted at www.bloodshotrecords.com, and Hobart can be contacted at www.rexhobart.com.
Andy Tanas
Songs from the New South
RT etc. Music

by Kevin J. Hosey

I wasn’t too sure about this CD on the first couple of listenings, but then, I figured out I should take a breath, relax, and actually enjoy it instead of looking for a lyrical statement of our times, politically and culturally (something I do too often), and well, this is a pretty good, fun CD. From the start, Southern rock is the, well, rock things are built on: “Just Another Heartache” has some fiddle from Gretchen Priest joining the Southern rock as Tanas notes that the most recent woman leaving him may hurt, but it’s not the first time, won’t be the last and certainly no worse than before. Things continue southern fried on “Tennessee Girl,” which toughens up the Southern rock riffage; Tanas seeks a good woman and one from Tennessee is what he wants, after having looked all over the world. “Rowdy” is slower, burning, soulful but muscular, with Hank Shipman adding “crunch guitar” to Tanas’ guitar leads and riffs. While there is more than a touch of Southern rock again on “Damage,” the more mid-tempo tune has lighter passages and Tanas sings like the Tragically Hip’s Gordon Downie on a very 1970s-sounding tune on which a woman has hurt Tanas inside. Another change of pace is “Typical Male,” with acoustic guitar, rhythm section and later mandolin from Brian Ward as Tanas notes he is what he is, a guy who loves women, gets jealous and so on. The sentiment behind “You Didn’t Have to Lie” should be pretty obvious, and the song features choppy, somewhat funky guitar, fiddle from Roy Brewer and steel guitar from Bruce Wandmayer. “Justice” is the story of a woman who is raped and then mistreated by the legal system, as she becomes the accused, an important topic that comes across a bit forced. Tanas can be contacted at www.andytanas.com or through Liz Winchester at Americana Media Productions at www.AmericanaMediaPro.com.