I love discovering the oceans of great music that exist without the support of mainstream media. It’s like being let in on a secret that is only meant for a few sets of ears. There is immense richness in its tone, coupled with a composition that makes me think, “How are these guys not more well known?” Well known in the sense of popular country music. Then I think again to myself, “It must be better that way?”
The new album called Tough Country, from the secret super group known as The Panhandlers, is indeed an ocean of great music upon which to set sail. It may seem strange to make a nautical reference about a band from west Texas. But the oceans I’m referring to span across every landscape, and through every genre. With our modern ease of access to great music just a finger’s click away. This could be one of the greatest times to be alive if you’re a music lover.
Tough Country is the second full-length album from the Panhandlers. From the beginning of my first listen of the song “Flatlands”, I was struck with the imagery of the Texas landscape in my mind. Though you may not be from west Texas during your listen to this album, you certainly won’t feel it. For me as I listened on, it became a story about the land, and the people that call it their home. The stories that only the best country music should be able to tell.
This is a gem of a record. It’s a fourteen song dedication to great song writing and country musicianship in a class of its own. It’s not over polished and produced. With an ode to a traditional style from generations before us. The simple bass line in the song “West Texas” that has just a hint of groove, to the song “Tough Country”, where the instruments dance together in such a way that it makes it sound as a love song. I guess it is though. A love song that was written for land.
At first glance at this album. I thought fourteen songs may have been too many. But it turned out it wasn’t. The song “Lajitas” acted as a type of intermission that preluded into the second half of the record, that started with the duet “Valentines”. Followed by a song called “Santa Fe”. I wanted to mention this song, for a lyric in it that struck me. Where the singer mentions how he has nothing in his glove box but an old Texaco map. I don’t know why that line was special to me. But it was. It made me remember a time when your truck didn’t have blue tooth, or when you didn’t carry around a phone with GPS. You had a paper map and a road sign to tell you where to go. But that was a time more lived by my dad than it was by me. The songs on this album are full memories.
What’s cool about some country music is that one can almost sense the region in which it was written. Tough Country is the west. You can sense it. You can see and feel the red dirt beneath your feet as you listen. Even if you’ve never been there. Even if you’ve only passed through it on your way to a place more populated and removed from Texas, taking listen would be worth your time.
About the author: A lover of grit and romance. A seeker of life lived fully. The story of hard times and good times. Of perseverance, and the art that’s created by it all.