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Bobby Rey |
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(Self-Release) Bobby Rey hails from South
Belmar, NJ. He became interested in country music while he was young,
listening to artists like Hank Williams and singing along with their
recordings. He taught himself to play guitar, bass and pedal steel,
and made his stage debut at age 13. He's played on the local country
circuit since then. After marrying and starting a family, he
needed work that was a little more financially secure though, and went
into law enforcement. However, he never he never gave up his music and
continued to write, play, and record his music. After a recording he
did in 1989 gained substantial local attention, he decided he needed
to go to Nashville to record and to more vigorously pursue his music
career.
Bobby's music is the traditional brand of
country- honky tonkers, shuffles and barroom weepers. Heartbreak and
lost love abounds. He reaches for the more contemporary sound on a
couple of the songs, however, it's the more contemporary sound of
country- as in the Alan Jackson type- not the cookie cutter HNC Music
Row pop fodder. Bobby has a wonderful voice for country, the kind one
longs to hear on the radio these days, and the album is packed with
plenty of weeping steel and fiddle. As a songwriter, he's also got a
good ear for relaying a heartbreak tale, and on the love songs, he
very nicely avoids saccharine, over-sentimentality.
The CD opens with a classic "what a fool
I've been" honky tonker, "If These Walls Could Talk." The upbeat
honky tonk of "I'm Coming Home Tonight" seems to be autobiographical,
about a singer who's been in Nashville pursuing his career, and
missing the woman that's keeping the homefires burning back home, and
can't wait to get back home to her. "The Girl I've Looked For All My
Life" is a mid-tempo ballad of loneliness and longing, set in a bar.
"Mine To Lose Again" has a more
contemporary feel, but with weeping fiddle, is a mournful tale of
heartbreak and regret, and delivered with an ache in his voice,
Bobby keeps the song firmly country to the core. "My Memories And Me"
is an aching barroom weeper recalling a lost love. "I Want Only You,"
with it's slight contemporary feel, is a mid-tempo confession of love.
The mid-tempo honky tonker "I Can't Hold Back The Bottle," is another
"lost love" acher where the narrator can't seem to lose the memories.
"I've Got The Love Sick Blues" honky tonks
it's way through another night of missing you. "Hit The Gate Running"
is a driving country tune about growing up, hittin' the road, and ramblin',
until meeting a woman who changes all that, and makes that ramblin'
man settle down. The mid-tempo ballad, "When I Saw You" tells the tale
about how love can change someone's life. "Honky Tonk The Town
Tonight" is a honky tonker that incorporates touches of swing, that
just celebrates going out for a night on the town and having a little
fun. The album closes to the shuffle of "She'll Go Home Tonight,"
a lament of being in love with someone else's woman.
Bobby Rey, armed with his songs of honky
tonk heartbreak, weeping steel and fiddle, and reverence for the heart
and soul of true country music, has what it takes to keep the
traditional country music flame burning brightly. Give him a listen,
and I'm sure you'll agree.
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AnnMarie
Harrington Take Country Back October 2002