9 Lives

Koe Wetzel, a modern country outlaw not exactly in the mold of Waylon but possibly closer to the man he is named after, David Allen Coe, released his 6th studio album, ‘9 Lives’ in July of this year.  It’s an energetic, genre bending, fun album that refuses to follow any forged paths from his last effort: ‘Hell Paso’.

Discussing his new album with Apple Music he wants his listeners to critique the 13th tracks in their entirety. Hearing what he is as a musician and an artist, stating, ‘So, if they come away from listening to the entire record…be like, OK now we get it a little bit more. Maybe he is a decent artist, a decent musician.

Decent artist, decent musician and yes, an outlaw. Affirmation (attempting confirmation?) from the chorus of the 13 track on ‘9 Lives’:

The last outlaw alive
The last of my kind
The last one who survived
I can’t believe I’m the last outlaw alive

Source: Apple Music. Graphic: Album cover copyright Columbia Music.

Six Market Blvd. – Shake it Down:

Flash in time band 6MB’s 2nd and final album, ‘Shake it Down’ is a Texas country rock album delivering a spiced-up studio album honed in the dives and bars between the concrete of Fort Worth, the college hangouts of Tarleton State, onto the stock yard sights and smells of Abilene.

Clayton Landua, frontman for the band says in a Billboard interview, “Shake It Down” is a mixture of styles, from the Seeger / Dylan vibe of “Stand,” as well as the 70s sounds of “The Painter” and “Say It.

The band with two well received albums under their belt, the big time seemed close by, when Landua decided to leave the group in 2014 to try something on his own. The remaining members thought about carrying on but not much of nothing went into that future.

If you give the album a listen, and you should, during the 13th track song, ‘Hey Mr. Indian Man’, Josh Serrato, lead guitarist, breaks into Deep Purple’s famous ‘Smoke on Water’ riff for reasons unknown and unstated but it did bring a smile to the lips quickly spreading over to the cheeks with a slow scratch to the head.

Source: Six Market Blvd. by Messick, Lone Star Music Mag., 2024. 6MB Takes Final Bow by Josh Harville, 2014 JTAC. 615 Spotlight by Chuck Dauphin, 2013, Billboard. Graphic Shake it Down Album Cover, Vision Entertainment copyright.

Twisters: The Album

Twisters: The Album’ was released on 19 July 2024, the same day as the movie premiered in the theaters. ‘The Album’ contains 29 high stepping and slow rolling country music tracks befitting a movie set in Oklahoma. This is the best original artist’s country soundtrack since the 1980 ‘Urban Cowboy’ which wasn’t exactly 100% country but close enough to make the point that it has been a long time since the genre has played front and center in a big budget movie.

Luke Combs’ song, ‘Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma’, first track on the album, was released as a single in May of 2024 prior to the release of the album and topped out on the US Hot Country charts at no. 4 and no. 23 on Billboard Hot 100.  The album contains additional singles from Miranda Lambert, Tucker Wetmore, Megan Moroney, and many, many more artists.

‘Twisters: The Album’ is an authentic ‘Feeling Country’.

Source: Apple Music.  Graphic: Album cover, Atlantic copyright.