Artist: Shooter Jennings
Album: Family Man
Bitrate: 242kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Entertainment One
Genre: Rock
Size: 73.02 megs
PlayTime: 0h 40min 08sec total
Rip Date: 2012-04-06
Store Date: 2012-03-13
Track List:
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01. The Real Me 4:19
02. The Long Road Ahead 3:58
03. The Deed & The Dollar 4:01
04. Manifesto No. 4 3:11
05. Summer Dreams (Al's Song) 3:11
06. Southern Family Anthem 3:23
07. Daddy's Hands 3:06
08. The Black Dog 5:00
09. The Family Tree 4:24
10. Born 5:35
Release Notes:
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Shooter Jennings' final album for Universal South, 2007's The Wolf, flirted more
with neo-traditional country than any of his previous records did; it was almost
schizophrenic, trying to balance his rock & roll side with his pedigree. After
leaving the label, he formed Hierophant, a post-psych, near metal outfit which
recorded the conceptual Black Ribbons, released independently to marginal
acclaim. But Jennings' country roots ran too deep to remain there; it was a
question of time before he returned in earnest. Ironically, after working so
hard to establish himself as a hard-rocking, hell-raising outlaw worthy of his
dad's pedigree, it's the country music on Family Man that really gives listeners
a deep, wide, appreciation of who Jennings is as an artist. He moved to New York
and it appears to have cleared his vision. He and pianist Erik Deutsch formed
Triple Crown, the absolutely killer backing band on Family Man. They cut this
album in a Soho studio; the end result is Jennings' most bona fide "country"
record to date, though it contains many surprises. As evidenced by the radio and
video success of the album's first single, "The Deed & the Dollar," a love song,
it has commercial viability without the production excesses of contemporary
country. Everything -- guitars, mandolins, pedal steel, fiddle, drums, piano,
vocals -- sounds natural and uncompressed. The songwriting on Family Man is
tighter than anything Jennings has offered us previously; it too is organic.
"The Long Road Ahead" (with guitar help from Tom Morello, and mandolin and
backing vocals from bandmember Eleanor Whitmore) is modern neo-trad country at
its best. "The Southern Family Anthem," a hard rocking, rebellious, anthemic
stomper (and a dead cross between Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their loudest
and Lynyrd Skynyrd), is the album's exception, but it works better as rock &
roll than anything his peers -- Kid Rock, Hank III, etc. -- have on offer.
"Daddy's Hands" moves back the other way: it's a tender, bittersweet
reminiscence of family that almost anybody can relate to. "The Black Dog" is
Southern Gothic storytelling at its best, inspired by a short story set during
the Civil War. Album-closer "Born Again" marries a sophisticated story line to
an equally savvy melody. Whitmore's backing harmony vocal and fiddle playing add
drama and texture. On Family Man, Shooter Jennings can assert his pedigree
musically without having to mention it. It's obvious he's grown and matured as
both a songwriter and a producer, and this is the finest moment in his catalog
thus far.