Search - Trent Willmon :: Trent Willmon

Ladies and gentlemen: THIS is country music!

DanD | 10/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With his rugged downhome voice and darned-good songwriting skills, Trent Willmon's debut CD takes country music back to the old days: when a song was poetry, and a singer was an artist.



If you are put off by the novelty-factor in the first two singles ("Beer Man" and "Dixe Rose Deluxe's..."), have no fear: there is enough heart (and heartbreak) on this album to satisfy the stone-cold country music fan within you. The topics of these songs are the very essence of country music: the working man, beer, home, heartbreak, and happiness. Highlights include the flat-out emotional "Home Sweet Holiday Inn," the rockin "She Don't Love Me" (gives Billy Ray Cyrus's version--TIME FLIES--a run for its money), the autobiographical "Medina Daydreaming," the poetic "Here," and...hell, every other song!



With lyrics that are simple yet profound ("I just do it every now and then/To remind myself why i just do it every now and then", "You oughta hear the stories they don't tell/Down at the wishing well"), and a voice that was destined to sing country songs, Trent Willmon is a treat. Hopefully, he'll become a superstar: he'll get the status he deserves, and he won't soon fade out of sight. And yet, Willmon sums himself up in the first song: "Ya'll, I'm just a beer man." And he is: a working man who sings songs for those of us who are ordinary, blue-collar people. A poet for the common man, in other words.



And no, I'm not exaggerating."

Songs that Tell Stories of Our Lives

T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 11/02/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Prime Cuts: Home Sweet Holiday Inn, Medina Daydreaming, Every Now and Then



Country music, unlike other genres, is enamored with songs steeped in the sepia tones of Americana past and also paeans collaged with the kaleidoscopic realities of today's southern life. This debut eponymous effort is a pavilion of narrative tunes that showcases Willmon's competence for crafting songs that limned the listener to his acerbic storylines and relatable characters. Further, helmsman Frank Rogers (whose production credits include recent hit albums by Brad Paisley, Josh Turner and Darryl Worley) certainly has a knack for making these narratives come alive within its honky tonk sonic milieu with lots of solidly country backings--awash with fiddles, steel guitars and all the good rustic stuff.



Possessing a sturdy baritone with a touch of bluesy grit, Willmon calls to mind such contemporaries like Andy Griggs or Darryl Worley. Exercising his vocal muscle to great form, "The Wishing Well" (which is the name of a tavern) tells a tale that exalts the affability of the honky tonk, a place where "everyone knows your name." To show his more domestic side, "The Good Life," finds a satisfied Willmon savoring his small town life together with his better half. The charisma of rural existence again is the theme of the second single "Dixie Rose Deluxe's." This time "Dixie Rose Deluxe's," being a multi-serviced Texan chain store, is the hub of the small town's activities. Though "Dixie Rose Deluxe's" is melodiously genial. it's not mordant enough to be shipped as a single to country radio. And after its arduous struggle at the lower rungs of the Billboard chart proves my point.



The highlights are the ballads: current single "Home Sweet Holiday Inn," is a top drawer weeper about a divorced dad wrestling with the guilt of spending a curtailed amount of time with his daughter. Alison Krauss' plaintive harmony vocals add a further haunting quality to the song's inherent pain. Backed by some delightful fiddling, "Medina Daydreaming" is the reflection of a homesick Willmon thinking back about his past and his hometown. Regrets and heartbreak don't sound more alluring than on the insightful "Every Now and Now," a track that breaks all the clichés of drinking and getting drunk.



Speaking of clichés, lead single "Beer Man" is full of them: "Spent the night with Jim Bean and Johnny Walker Red/Woke up with a freight train running through my head." "Beer Man," in my opinion, is nothing more than a platform for Willmon to make his machismo confession for the nip. While Chris Stapleton/Liz Hengber's "Population 81," one of the three tracks not written by Willmon, is amiable. But it bears a striking resemblance to Kevin Sharp's "Population Minus One."



With many of the songs bearing a 2001 copyright, Willmon must have had these set of songs coming for some time, and I am glad they finally see the light of day. While most new country acts are indulging in mawkish pop ventures, it's refreshing to hear Willmon holding on to the traditional country torch. This West Texan's debut effort is a delightful reminder of why country music has been so appealing-it's about songs that tell the stories of our lives."

ONE OF THE BEST OF 2004

Crabby Apple Mick Lee | INDIANAPOLIS, IN USA | 10/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the many winning aspects of Country music is its many "love letters" to the places where we come from. You don't have to be from Alabama while listening to "My Home's In Alabama" or from Tennessee with "Back Where I Come From" to know what the singer is talking about and understand the feeling. Trent Willmon is from West Texas and brings to the floor all the merits we have come to expect from real Texans. A self-admitted "wannabe cowboy" Willmon sings a dusty baritone in songs who's subjects he knows well. "Love Of Place" is not so much overtly stated as running beneath the surface. This kind of music could have come from nowhere else but Texas.



With Willmon's debut, we are treated in varying degrees of humor, sadness and wistfulness with songs about being a regular guy ("Beer Man"), the glories of the small town country store ("Dixie Rose Deluxe"), the guilt of a "weekend Dad" ("Sweet Home Holiday Inn"), bar life ("Wishing Well"), assorted crap sandwiches of lost love ("She Don't Love Me", "Population 81"), memories of romances long gone ("Medina Daydreaming", "Every Now And Then") and the love of a good woman ("Good Life", "All Day Long", "Here"). All done in a variety of Texas twang, country ballad, and Western Swing.



This is one of the better Country CDs to be released this year-a year of an exceptionally good crop of Country records. Certainly an equal to this year's CDs from Alan Jackson, Gretchen Wilson and John Michael Montgomery-better than those from Lone Star, Tim McGraw, or Rascal Flatts. Somewhere Bob Wills is smiling.



If you don't like Country music, I don't know why you're looking here in the first place. But if you do, you can't go wrong getting this album.



NOTE: What is it with the record companies these days? "Beer Man" hit the airwaves all the way back in June but this album only became available in the last half of October. That's quite a long time, gentlemen. I am still waiting for the Kellie Coffey album and Amy Dalley's album is still unscheduled. Why stir up interest and then leave demand unfilled? You may think its all a part of a smart sales strategy; but I think you're being too clever by half.

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