CARRY ON

Personnel includes: Pat Green (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Terri Hendrix (vocals); Lloyd Maines (acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar, dobro, background vocals); David Grissom (electric guitar); Willie Nelson, Brett Danaher (guitar); Jondan McBride (mandolin, bass); Brendon Anthony (fiddle); Bukka Allen (accordion, Hammond B-3 organ); Glen Fukunaga (acoustic & electric basses); Chris Skiles, Justin Pollard (drums); Paul Pearcy (percussion); Bob Livingston (background vocals). Recorded at Cedar Creek Studios, Austin, Texas. Carry On, issued in 2000, is Pat Green's third album and his last before signing to Universal Republic. One can hear transition in the sound of this record, and traces of Nashville's mighty presence in the production, but this is still very much a Texas record. The song choices are strong with the exception of "Louisiana Song," a lame attempt at loungey jump blues (thankfully, it's the set closer), and the cover of David Wilcox's "Rusty Old American Dream," which practically begs Nashville's A&R men to notice him. The midtempo pedal steel whine "Whiskey" is a broken love song-cum-drinking song that sounds like a road song. While its lyrics aren't overly clever (Green has never been able to employ metaphors in any original way) and Robert Earl Keen's influence is ever present, its fine open, engaging melody is exceptionally attractive. "Ruby's Two Sad Daughters," written by sometime songwriting partner Walt Wilkins, is a forlorn, small town folk tune which recalls -- in spirit -- the music and narratives found on John Mellencamp's Lonesome Jubilee. (Yeah, that's a compliment.) "Crazy" and "Washington Avenue" are the finest country love songs Green ever wrote and are worth the price of admission alone. "Gallywinter," another ballad, is spectral, almost atmospheric; the traces of its melody linger after the images in its lyrics have faded. "Take Me Out to a Dancehall" is, as one would suspect, a Texas country barroom song with an amorous bent. The title track, co-written with Wilkins (who gets namechecked in it) is a Texas country rocker with a swinging fiddle. Despite the two throwaway tunes, Carry On is a more mature and artfully rendered collection than anything Green had released before, even if it did signal his willingness to, eventually, be co-opted by Music City's standards. Recommended. ~ Thom Jurek