Kevin Fowler: Live At Bill Bob's Texas
For the Month of March we have chosen a something a little different. Kevin Fowler is a country music artist out of the Austin, Texas music scene. Fowler played in several rock bands before forming a pure Texas Country Band in the late nineties. Since that time he has released 5 albums on several small independent Texas music labels. This includes his first album which he recorded and released himself entitled "Beer, Bait, and Ammo." In addition to his own albums, Kevin has written for several country music stars including Sammy Kershaw and Mark Chesnutt. We have chosen his live album "Live at Billy Bob's Texas" to review as it includes a number of his best loved tracks and gives a good overview of what Kevin Fowler can do.
After a quick first listen to this album there are several important things that stand out. The style of the music is far from the current country/pop put out by the Nashville country music scene. Instead Kevin Fowler plays a rockin' honky-tonk type of country not frequently played by mainstream country music. Humor is an important part of Kevin Fowlers repertoire. Many of his songs have the element of humor including "Beer, Bait, and Ammo", "The Lord Loves the Drinkin' Man", and "Speak of the Devil" to name a few. Lastly Kevin is a solid musician and performer as the album is of extremely high quality for a live performance. He puts a lot of energy into the music and you can hear what a good time he is having as he performs.
The albums starts off with the song "100% Texan." This song describes Kevin's view on Texas, it's a gentle set of lyrics describing an appreciation of the simple things.
The humor starts early with the track "There's A Fool Born Everyday" that's written about the next guy to date and ex-girlfriend. As previously mentioned, the humor is pervasive throughout the album. "Speak of the Devil" (another song about a woman) applies Halloween devil imagery to a woman in a rather creative way. "Beer, Bait & Ammo" is also a very cleaver and funny song that describes a bait stand that he stops at on his way to a favorite fishing hole.
"And the sign said beer bait and ammo yeah they got everything in between, yeah they got a-anything any old beer drinking hell raising bonafide redneck needs, they got your fishing hooks, got your dirty books, got your rebel flag on the wall, sign said beer bait and ammo yeah you ask me they got it all"
In addition to the humor, there are several tear jerkers on the album, the best one being "If These Old Walls Could Talk." The song talks about all of the bad things he had done in the past that he was sorry for and how they could affect his future, a really great slow track. Another sad one is "Not Lovin' Anymore" where he feels sorry for the next girl he dates, "She ain't got a chance in hell", as he has become to jaded from his previous relationship.
"Live At Billiy Bob's Texas" is a solid all around album. Really great songwriting, good delivery, and plenty of humor so that you can't wait for the next line. This album is a Paravellum recommendation with 4 stars.