Bill Neely – Texas Law & Justice CD 496

Description

CD 496

Bill Neely had been singing and picking a little guitar since 1929 when Jimmie Rodgers showed him a few basics. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that he started writing his own songs which he continued to do until his death in 1990. The songs on this, Bill’s only album, are almost all his own compositions.
In an age of slick “country” music, the songs of Bill Neely are a blast of honesty. Songs like “Skid Row,” “Satan’s Burning Hell” and “Texas Law and Justice” are not the romantic notions of suburban adolescents, but the real stories of a hard life, full of heartbreak, lost love, and gross miscarriage of justice. What makes this great country music is that through all of the suffering and disappointment, Neely’s humor and optimism shine through like a ray of light through a storm. This CD contains the music from Bill Neely’s LP Blackland Farm Boy with additional, unreleased cuts. The tunes are varied, from quick instrumental numbers to slow, melancholy laments. This is real country music for real people!

1. Satan’s Burning Hell
2. Big Yellow Moon Over Texas
3. Texas Law And Justice
4. Pflugerville Boogie
5. Crying The Blues Over You
6. On A Blackland Farm
7. Austin Breakdown (1)
8. A Soldier’s Thoughts
9. No Pockets In A Shroud
10. Lonely Mansion
11. Deep Elm Blues
12. Rock & Roll Baby
13. Skid Row
14. Don’t Waste Your Tears Over Me
15. Blues On Ellem
16. Austin Breakdown (2)
17. Never Left The Lone Star State
18. I’m A Truck Drivin’ Daddy
19. My Tennessee Home
20. Sun Setting Time In Your Life

REVIEW

“This is quite good down-home country music with hints of rockabilly and blues, far above the usual standards of modestly produced folkloric sessions by musicians who worked almost totally outside of the commercial recording scene. There’s really cool primitive, swirling electric guitar reverb, attaining an almost organ-like timbre in some respects; it’s the kind of low-budget effect that the best modern studios would probably find impossible to replicate.”

– Richie Unterberger, AllMusic.com