1975 marked the return to the recording scene for
Steve Young.
Honky Tonk Man, released on Wisconsin's tiny
Mountain Railroad Records, was his first recording since
Seven Bridges Road in 1971 (which had been reissued in 1973). This is the most straight-up
country record
Young ever cut. He handles both lead and rhythm guitar chores with a band of fine session players, including
Kamau Gravatt, who did double duty with
Weather Report. Other than redos of
Utah Phillips'
"Rock, Salt & Nails" and his own
"White Trash Song," Young sticks somewhat close to the canon of classic
country with a few surprises -- at least on side one; side two is mostly his own material. The deep
blues read of
Bob Wills'
"Brain Cloudy Blues" is radical and as far from
Western swing as it gets, but it also showcases
Wills' own roots in the
blues. The title cut is a version of the
Johnny Horton classic with swinging fiddles by
Craig Ruble and
Cal Hand's warbling pedal steel kept in line by
Bill Petersen's electric bass.
Young's vocal is a reedy baritone that gets to the heart of matter -- that this is a drinking playboy's anthem. Side one eclipses with a high, lonesome take on
Hank Williams'
"Ramblin' Man" that is as cur-dog low as it is restless and a cover of
Robbie Robertson's
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Young's version is pastoral and slow; it's as mournful as a funeral song and comes across as a
folk elegy for the Deep South at the end of the Civil War. Side two is marked by
Young's own stunner,
"We've Been Together on This Earth Before," "Vision of a Child," and two live cuts done with
Doc Watson of the
traditional "Sally Goodin'" and the spooky
country of
"Travelin' Kind." Like
Seven Bridges Road,
Honky Tonk Man is a fine outing from
Young, though it is hampered a bit by somewhat shoddy recording. But the material and his performance of it are top-notch. ~ Thom Jurek
