Search - Kevin Deal :: Roll

The thinking man's redneck?

Creigh Gordon | Albuquerque | 09/23/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

""There must be something in the water: Kevin Deal is yet another serious Texas-based singer-songwriter. He's in the Steve Earle/Joe Ely mold, both in terms of style and gambler's instinct" is what Billboard Magazine wrote about Kevin Deal. I've been to Texas, and there's nothing in the water. But there is a devoted audience for this kind of music, and Kevin Deal's CD is a fine, fine example of what Texas country music has to offer.

Deal wrote or co-wrote all the songs on this CD, and there isn't a weak song here. But he's also a better performer than most songwriters, with a very good voice and instrumental technique, especially if you like singers that get out of the way of the music. Lloyd Maines' production is what it always is, and it too mostly stays out of the way of the songs. Deal is clearly a bar musician - "Texas and Beer" talks directly about the economics of butts on bar stools, but there's way more here than formulas. If John Prine had grown up in Texas instead of Chicago, he might have sounded a lot like this.

This collection of songs also has a nice flow to it - enough cohesiveness to feel right together, but enough variety to be interesting from start to finish. Throughout, there's enough complexity in these songs to make repeated listening worth while."