The album starts is a very comfortable, if middle of the road territory. The title song is a mid-tempo, top down, road trip song that feels like a good summertime fit for country radio. Its a good foot to get started on, catchy and commercial without losing a creative edge. “Solid Ground” is another strong track, channeling Merle Haggard with lines like “it seems like the higher I reach the further down I fall,” before celebrating the woman who sustains him. “Road of a Hard Outlaw” gives a compelling glimpse of what country music might have been like if Steve Earle had decided to take Copperhead Road in a more commercial direction. “Like Its the Last Goodbye,” sound like the best of 80's country, with a 90's electric edge. Unfortunately, the promise of these four tracks is quickly squandered. The album contains two tracks that revel in the syrup that can only be found the in the death of a loved one, in this case a spouse. To be far, “Her Stone,” is not a bad song, as dead wife songs go. Its a quiet piano ballad, which finds the protagonist begging passers-by “Don't think I'm crazy if you think I'm talking to myself...I'm just talking to her stone.” “Off to Heaven,” on the other hand, is just an all around weird song about a wife who viewed going to work as being “off to Heaven” and the mess of a husband she leaves behind. Soldier songs are becoming less of a necessity on country albums these days, but Skinner throws one in just to be safe. “Soldier's Last Breath” is a halfway decent song, strongest when it talks about the actual soldiers in battle. It falls apart a bit when it questions the military knowledge of Capitol Hill, including, presumably, the 121 congress members who are veterans. The weakest song on the album comes in the form of his small town anthem, “Redneck Country Town.” This is a song that goes so over the top with the theme that, in the hands of a smarter artist, it would have been a parody. The album closes out well enough with “Find Your Way Back Home,” a gentle ballad of lost love that brings to mind similar ballads from Michael Martin Murphy.
If Steve Goodman were still alive today, one can imagine a song whose third verse would start, “Well I was in a small town when an old man said my mama/ was going to die of cancer sometime today.” And, one can see where Kevin Skinner would come across that song and sing it, never quite realizing that it is a joke. This is unfortunate because Skinner has an amazingly good voice, with the same kind of old-school country grit that has made Jamey Johnson the king of the New Outlaw movement. In this, it would have almost been better if Skinner had been on American Idol, where he would have been introduced to their favored critique—song choice. While it is difficult to imagine a scenario where Simon Cowell would have recommended a whole bunch of Merle Haggard and Slaid Cleaves covers, that is certainly the direction in which Kevin Skinner should have gone.
You can support Kevin Skinner by purchasing this album at Amazon | iTunes.
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