I've been sitting on this last piece of found musica for too long, so I'll just knock it out here for you while I sit and listen to it. I found this one on my desk when I got back from Minneapolis a week or two ago, a present from The Wife. I finally got to listen to it on my drive back from Austin last week.
It's really hard for me to say just how much I like this album, and how much I dig Opie Hendrix. There's really nothing wrong with it that I can find (except for one slow song that I just can't abide). I'm already on record as saying that Opie's nothing short of a Texas musical genius, and this CD just makes me believe that even more. He's an awesome guitarist, and I love to hear him wail. So, let me just kind of take this track-by-track, if you don't mind. But really...you should just trust me on this one and go buy it right frikkin' now. You will not make a mistake by snagging Smashed Hits at the same time, my friends.
1) A 30 second intro that cracks you up...
2) Can't Even Yodel - a nice little "saloon by the train station & a broken heart" song about drinking, sorta shuffly and blue. Good pedal steel guitar here, and some superb fiddling, too. I want to hear this one out under the stars. And Opie does a passable yodel in there, too.
3) Little Party - heh...a good "caught you in the middle of doing wrong" in classic Ft. Worth Stockyards country music style. I can just see the hats twirling the rhinestone jeans around in a sweet, well-practiced two-step. Lopes along beautifully, has a good honky-tonk piano plinking along in there, and the chorus a great sing-along (the dog is the only one who agrees with me.)
4) Golfing & Gravy - a folky, fun little thing, full of aphorisms and metaphors, strung along with what I've come to consider a typical Opie style — bright notes peeking out, kinda poppy, but fun — a real toe-tapper & head-knodder. Great line: "gotta keep singin, even when no one's dancin..."
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Scott! great to hear from you and Opie.