Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time have recently released an excellent Bluegrass album Took Down and Put Up on Lonesome Day records. The album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts and will certainly move toward the top before it is through.
Most widely known as a songwriter, rural Kentucky native Larry Cordle has had songs recorded by Ricky Skaggs, Garth Brooks, Alison Krauss, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Rhonda Vincent and Trish Yearwood among others. Founded in 1990, Lonesome Standard Time was formed by long-time friends Larry Cordle and Glen Duncan. Success came quickly for the band, yielding a Grammy nomination for the group’s debut album. However, in 1995 they took a hiatus because Cordle’s songwriting skills were needed in Nashville and Duncan devoted more time to studio work. Larry Cordle put Lonesome Standard Time back together in 2000.
The feature song on Took Down and Put Up is “Rough Around the Edges” with Travis Tritt on lead vocals. On this song he shows he is not politically correct or ashamed of who he is. The style of the album is primarily traditional Bluegrass with excellent musicianship accompanying superb songwriting. Cordle’s songs give us everything we could want from a Bluegrass or Country album. We get Cheatin,’ Lyin,’ revenge and women who leave. We have a train robbery and a muscle car. He even mentions mama a few times so all of the ingredients are in place to make David Allan Coe proud.
Listen to The First Train Robbery
This revie also appears on Amber Waves of Twang
About the author: Chip and his family live in Birmingham, AL. Roll Tide!