Categories : Country + Western, Music Reviews.
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Rating: 3.5/5 Released: September 26, 2006 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
After being driven from his home in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina in 2005, Grayson Capps returns triumphantly with his sophomore release Wail & Ride. Made up of largely country-blues numbers he eclipses his previous release If You Knew My Mind, with improved songwriting and more musical diversity.
With his rumbling voice and guitar in hand he goes from the country-blues style that we were first introduced to on If You Know My Mind to the more diverse styling of ‘Poison’ and ‘Give it to Me,’ which, with it’s swing style, is the album’s most fun track. And while ‘Daddy’s Eyes’ and the albums best track ‘Mermaid’ are both more reminiscent of his previous work, they collectively mark his improvement as a songwriter.
Having been a resident of New Orleans prior to the Katrina tragedy makes ‘New Orleans Waltz’ an expected addition to the albums song list. It is musically beautiful and Capps has the right idea with the chorus but ironically singles out George W. Bush as “a lying hypocrite†in the verse immediately following “Let’s not complain about Mayor Ray Nagin / I think that he’s done the best that he could / I just wish that people would stop pointing fingers.†This momentary, albeit obvious, lapse in common sense unfortunately makes what should have been the albums most important track the only detraction on Wail & Ride.
The Alabama native views Wail & Ride as a new chapter in his life, writing that these songs should be taken as “A depiction of my departure from New Orleans, my life in New Orleans, and my love of New Orleans.†If that is the case, then it is only appropriate that the city of New Orleans, even in the face of disaster, has positively influenced another great musician.
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