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Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys Your Favorite Fool |
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Track List 1. You've Got Some Cheating
to Do
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(Bloodshot) Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys
(Rex Hobart handling vocals and acoustic guitar, Solomon Hofer on
pedal steel, dobro and harmonica, Blackjack Snow on bass, JB Morris on
electric lead guitar, and TC Dobbs on drums) return with their third
release, the Pete Anderson produced, Your Favorite Fool.
Formed in 1996, this Missouri outfit stays firmly on the course of
their two previous albums, 1999's Forever Always Ends, and
2000's The Spectacular Sadness of Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys,
with their killer brand of Bakersfield influenced honky tonk
two-steppers, and "tear in your beer" barroom weepers of heartache.
Your Favorite Fool opens with the
rousing honky tonker about giving in to the temptations of honky tonk
angels, "You've Got Some Cheating To Do." The Tex-Mex inflected title
cut, "Your Favorite Fool," begs a woman that's been using him, while
running around with other men, to just let him live with his fantasies
of her. Rex shines best on the slower, heartbreak ballads, his voice,
almost too convincingly, emotes such ache, it'll tear your heart out,
as he proves on "Take It Back (Before You Mean It)."
The honky tonkers "Gotta Get Back To
Forgetting You," and the driving, Bakersfield influenced "I Don't Feel
It Anymore," touch on heartbreak, the former about resisting walking
back into something he managed to walk away from, and the latter about
being hurt so many times, he just doesn't feel the pain anymore.
"Another Bad Habit Of Mine" adds falling for a woman to his list
of vices he can't seem to break.
The ballads "Promise To Be Honest," and
"Let's Just Call It Love," offer up the hope, that despite the
difficulties and temptations that happen in relationships, that love
may prevail in the end. In a duet with Kelly Hogan, Rex & the boys
offer up an outstanding cover of the Bobby Braddock penned, George
Jones/Tammy Wynette hit, "Golden Ring." Rex and Kelly do a wonderful
job of taking the song through the initial optimism of finding true
love, to the painful ache of that love gone bad, and the sadness at
it's ultimate demise. The strongest song of the bunch is saved for the
disc's closer, "I Should Be Gone By Now," a heartbreak ballad of a
woman he knows is cheating, but he stay's because to him, a one-sided
love is better than none at all. Rex sings this one with such a
gut-wrenching ache, it's guaranteed to have your beer diluted by
tears, in no time flat.
Rex possesses a voice that's country to
the bone, the Misery Boys contribute excellent instrumental backing,
and Pete Anderson guides them with his stellar production work,
through a set of strong, straightforward, traditional honky tonk songs
full of heartache and cheatin'. Your Favorite Fool will most
assuredly satisfy the appetite of any fan of traditional honky tonk.
 AnnMarie Harrington
Take Country Back October 2002 |
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