I love a good title. Not those rage-triggering, click-bait things you see on social media, but a well-conceived summary of what the article is about. Or the rare occasion when judging a book by its cover is justified. That’s just what you get from LA singer-songwriter David Serby’s latest album, Broken Heart in a Honky Tonk. Even if I told you nothing else, those six words frame a picture in your mind that Serby expands on with the eleven tracks on the record.
The CD opens with the title track, a tale of a bar regular spotting a newcomer with her white wine, obviously drowning her sorrows. Our protagonist proceeds to show her the highlights of the place, most notably “a sad song on an old jukebox/beer and tequila shots.” Disc closer Drive Me Home is less honky-tonk and more slow country shuffle, although the tempo picks up considerably in the second half of the song. It’s set, appropriately, at closing time when the singer needs “someone new to love me just enough to drive me home.” In between are several variations on the theme. Border Town Romance adds a little norteno flavor to the honky tonk genre while No Happy Endings is more of a jangly, country rock cut.
While Serby does an admirable job of putting twang in the vocals to match the instrumental style, the biggest surprise is when he turns on the crooner charm. Little Ol’ Bruise shows off a Chris Issak-level of smoothness and features Jay Dee Maness on pedal steel. If I Weren’t Me is a slow ballad, with a just-introduced couple imagining what the night would hold if they weren’t already in their own relationships. Flight Path is one of the few numbers not set in a roadhouse, although it’s perhaps a conversation taking place at a bar. Drums and a walking bass line frame the account of going from working in a carwash under the landing jetliners to realizing being on one of them is the escape he’s looking for.
David Serby’s other job is as a screenwriter. No doubt that’s helped him create the narrative of this record, and that’s what sets it apart from the hundreds, or probably thousands, of other albums full of songs about heartbreak and bars. So if you want to hear a master storyteller executing on his craft, all put to a boot-scootin’ beat, check out Broken Heart in a Honky Tonk.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.