(IndieMafia) Billy Don Burns follows up his superb 2002 release, Train Called Lonesome, with the equally superb Heroes, Friends & Other Troubled Souls. Billy Don co-produces and wrote the album's 12 songs (which include 3 co-written with Hank Cochran) plus a Johnny Cash cover. Fellow musicians lending a hand throughout the album include Jerry Laseter, Jeff Williams, Charlie White, John Scott, Hank Cochran, Willie Nelson and Tanya Tucker.

Billy Don continues his foray into the acoustic based country music that made up Train Called Lonesome, but on his latest effort he mixes it up, adding in a few plugged in honky tonkers. Tanya Tucker adds her vocal talent to the album opener, "Mississippi," a sultry, rockin' outlaw tale about the adventures of a man, a woman with a wild streak and a motorcycle. Billy Don reprises the always outstanding "Patsy," a poignant and torchy tribute to Patsy Cline. This time out he trades the song's verses with Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran, a brilliant touch that adds even greater depth to the song's wistful poignancy. Billy Don kicks it up with a blistering, swampy roadhouse rocking honky tonker as he weaves his dark tale about the life of a drug runner in "Runnin' Drugs Out Of Mexico." "Rock On" is a terrific country rocker that pays heartfelt tribute to all the road warrior troubadours out there carrying on, both new ones and those still soldiering on after decades.

Billy Don's brand of acoustic fare is a creative mix that features fiddle, mandolin, banjo and harmonica, yet isn't the country-folk sound typically associated with the use of those instruments these days. Neither does it veer off in any real sense into bluegrass territory, but instead lends a rustic feel to what amounts to a hardcore honky tonk hill-country sound, think Hank Williams rather than Bill Monroe. The powerful and haunting "I Was There," is an autobiographical look back at the magic of Nashville's past that touches on both the highs and lows, legends, legendary times and a few injustices. Billy Don also reprises his comical, tongue-in-cheek "Haggard & Hank" where he holds them and their music responsible for his career choice that often held more than he'd bargained for. "Dark Side Of The Spoon" is a stark and brutally honest look at addiction, while "Full Blown Addict" tackles the same theme in what can best be described as country-blues-boogie (hill-boogie?). The outstanding "Keith Whitley Blue" is a chugging, two-stepping revelation by a man who reaches the place where he at last fully understands the songs of country singers who lived the lives they sang about, "I'm Hank Williams lonesome and Keith Whitley blue..." Fiddle, mandolin and banjo drive the breezy shuffle "No Man's Land," about the willingness to sacrifice anything for the burning desire to play music. "Sailin' Down The Nile" is a poignantly beautiful ballad that finds a man wistfully recalling the memories of a lifetime of love and mourning it's unexpected end. A highlight is the powerful gospel influenced "Tired & Troubled Soldiers," that delivers the message that compassion for others is the key to one's own salvation. Billy Don closes the album with a strong, emotionally wrenching cover of Johnny Cash's "Give My Love To Rose."

Billy Don's songwriting is full of uncompromising honesty that comes from the depths of his heart and soul. He writes about his life's experiences, he celebrates the good and is unafraid to face the bad, at times even finding and maintaining an irresistible dark sense of humor about it. He possesses the kind of world weary voice that's the perfect match to his vivid and often poetic songs of life's ups and downs. Once again with Heroes, Friends & Other Troubled Souls, Billy Don Burns pulls no punches and delivers another first rate effort of hard hitting, hardcore country music.        

Standout Tracks: "I Was There," "Haggard & Hank," "Sailin' Down The Nile," "Patsy," "Keith Whitley Blue," "Runnin' Drugs Out Of Mexico," "Tired & Troubled Soldiers"

On The Net: www.billydonburns.com

AnnMarie Harrington TakeCountryBack January 2005

Read TCB's previous reviews of Billy Don Burns:

http://www.takecountryback.com/reviews/bdbrev0402.htm

http://takecountryback.com/reviews/bdbrev0802.htm