BRUCE ROBISON > The New World

As Texas textures go, singer/songwriter Bruce Robison merges the dreaminess of Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s most romantic moments and Billy Joe Shaver’s plain-dirt take on life. Not sentimental, just emotionally clear, Robison’s quirky takes on love, on life, on people you meet have given George Strait (“Wrapped”), Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (“Angry All The Time”) and the Dixie Chicks (“Wandering Soldier”) singular moments.

Label: Premium
[Rating: 3.5 STARS]

As Texas textures go, singer/songwriter Bruce Robison merges the dreaminess of Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s most romantic moments and Billy Joe Shaver’s plain-dirt take on life. Not sentimental, just emotionally clear, Robison’s quirky takes on love, on life, on people you meet have given George Strait (“Wrapped”), Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (“Angry All The Time”) and the Dixie Chicks (“Wandering Soldier”) singular moments. The New World strings tales of horses (the very loyal “Larosse”), temptresses having a moment of clarity (“Bad Girl Blues”), wheezy, gut bucket emancipation (“The Hammer”), and distraught and tangled up (“Hanging On Hopeless”). It’s a bit of a twinkle, the ether innocence of one who knows, but doesn’t succumb to the bitter. The Johnny Cash chik-a-boom beat “The New One” is pure dance hall fidelity shuffle, while “Twistin’” paints a dancing cyclone against a pure ‘50s rhythm and livewire electric, and “Only” is a quick-talking burst of what came before and no more. “She Don’t Care” evokes the agrarian side of Neil Young, maintaining split-rail populism into the 21st century.