Artist: Tom Gillam Album: Rustic Beauty Bitrate: 216kbps avg Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz Label: Blue Rose Records Genre: Rock Size: 69.36 megs PlayTime: 0h 42min 38sec total Rip Date: 2012-03-03 Store Date: 2012-02-24 Track List: -------- 01. Till The Morning 3:29 02. The Long Way Around 3:45 03. Crazy Southern Women 4:18 04. A Song For Caroline 3:03 05. A Good Feelin' To Know 3:31 06. Hand Me Down Blues 4:16 07. (Special Announcement) 0:22 08. So In Tune 4:01 09. Echo Town 3:31 10. (I Guess) You Got Yours, Too 4:01 11. Change Partners 3:41 12. All Right 4:40 Release Notes: -------- When Blue Rose Records released TOM GILLAM's album Never Look Back four years ago, the Americana rocker was an unknown quantity to most European music lovers. All that has changed drastically in the meantime! In early 2012 Tom Gillam has certainly established himself as a major artist in the roots-rock field thanks to his numerous activities. He never fails to deliver proof, be it with solo live shows, as a team player in mini-supergroup US Rails or with another album release. Rustic Beauty is the fitting title of his 8th solo record, the 5th on Blue Rose. Most fans really got to know Tom through his Never Look Back CD & tour although some had noticed him even before that as another popular Blue Rose artist's sideman. In 2005/2006 Tom toured and recorded as Joseph Parsons' lead guitarist. He caused some heads to turn and ears to open with his tasty (slide) guitar playing and his energetic, likeable stage presence. At that time, he had already released three albums stateside: First Of All (1998), Dallas (2001) and Shake My Hand (2004). While his earlier albums roamed the country/roots rock/Americana range, later on Gillam veered towards a straighter rock sound a la Mellencamp, Hiatt, Walsh, Seger. After Never Look Back and the rousing live album Play Loud ... Dig Deep (2008) he upped the ante with the next studio record Had Enough? Between albums, the New Jersey-born and Philadelphia-bred songwriter had moved to Austin, TX and found a new home there. Besides playing solo and with his band Tractor Pull, he hosts a successful radio show on KNBT-FM for the New Braunfels/San Antonio area. In "The Cosmic Power Hour" he cultivates his love for the music of the 70ies spinning Poco, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Outlaws, Byrds, Manassas, Allman Brothers and more obscure stuff every Sunday night. And that brings us to Rustic Beauty! His personal anthology Better Than The Rest - released on Blue Rose in 2010 - signaled a return to the 70ies country & roots rock sound of his earlier work. His harder rocking, electrified blues & rock'n'roll drenched songs with fat slide guitars are - for now - relegated to US Rails. This multi-frontman project with Joseph Parsons, Scott Bricklin, Ben Arnold and Matt Muir is currently electrifying fans with their second album Southern Canon - with Gillam playing all the electric guitar parts. On Rustic Beauty, however, he is a very relaxed, acoustic-based singer-songwriter with a unique voice and an excellent session band, presenting original material and hand-picked covers with a Southern flavor in an easy-going back porch atmosphere. While there was much to enjoy when Tractor Pull played on his more rock-oriented albums, the Drakes from Austin are nailing this country rock feel in exquisite fashion. The Drakes consist of guitarist and lap steel player Matt Giles (Toni Price, Beaver Nelson, Nathan Hamilton), keyboarder Ron Flynt (20/20, Bluehearts, Walter Tragert, Scrappy Jud Newcomb), Austin bass legend Michael "Cornbread" Traylor (Alejandro Escovedo, Billy Joe Shaver, Larry Wilson) and drummer Vicente Rodriguez (Walt Wilkins, Eric Hisaw). This quintet is sometimes rounded out by steel guitarist David Spencer (Hayes Carll, Shelley King) and fiddler Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly. Rustic Beauty features eleven first-class songs that segue seamlessly, eight of which were written by Tom Gillam. There's also the country soul of "Hand Me Down Blues" by Terri Hendrix (one of the most underrated songwriters on the scene) with its irresistible, hymn-like chorus and two 70ies classics that could come straight out of the "Cosmic Power Hour" radio show: "A Good Feelin' To Know", one of Richie Furay's strongest contributions to Poco, and "Change Partners", one of Stephen Stills' strongest numbers (from Stephen Stills 2). It's remarkable how Gillam's originals shine next to such classics, not only as well-crafted songs but also thanks to his sensibility, finesse and feel for the sound of that era. Opener "Till The Morning" being a fine example of this, reminiscent of the Ozarks and Goose Creek Symphony, not only because of the fiddle. It's followed by "The Long Way Around" which waltzes with a fine acoustic solo before "Crazy Southern Women" are serenaded with a Southern soul flavor courtesy of Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham while "A Song For Caroline" provides a pleasant countrified uptempo vibe. "So In Tune" is a melodic rocker with strong electric guitar by Matt Giles while the foggy folk ballad "Echo Town" echos the westcoast sounds of David Crosby & Graham Nash. Thus, Rustic Beauty is yet another 100 percent handmade Tom Gillam album with its focus not on loud rock'n'roll but on a more relaxed, laid-back and impeccably delivered country rock, in the classic sense of the word.