This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Personnel: Jack Ingram (acoustic guitar); Jack Ingram (vocals); Jens Pinkernell (guitar, electric guitar); Mike McAdam (guitar); Mike McAdam (electric guitar); Tommy Hannum (pedal steel guitar); Scott Esbeck (electric bass, bass guitar, background vocals); Todd Snider, Bruce Robison, Kenny Holloway (background vocals); Richard Bennett (guitar); Tony Harrell (keyboards); Pete Coatney (drums).
Audio Mixer: Peter Coleman.
Photographer: Senor McGuire.
Bouncing back from his first, abortive major-label experience with the shuttered Rising Tide imprint, Jack Ingram lands on another custom label, Sony's Lucky Dog, for his fifth album overall, Hey You. And he just keeps doing what he does, which is producing a lightened version of the kind of Texas singer/songwriter honky tonk music typical of Joe Ely and Steve Earle. Ingram's primary subject is the difficulty of communication between lovers, a topic he pursues in songs like "Talk About," "How Many Days," and "Work This Out." But his better songs are more specific, and often seem to derive from their opening lines. "Biloxi," in which a son criticizes his father for abandoning the family, begins, "Where in hell did you go, " while "Mustang Burn," in which the singer addresses a man whose automobile he may or may not have torched, starts with, "I don't give a damn that your car's on fire." They tell stories that grab you right away, and they're good enough that you wish Ingram's songs were all that good and wonder why they're not. ~ William Ruhlmann
If you like your country a bit rough around the edges, Jack Ingram's HEY YOU is the ticket. Imagine your typical radio-friendly country CD with chunks of the gloss sandpapered off, and you've got a good idea of Ingram's sound. Like his hero Steve Earle, Ingram's voice is a bit ragged; the guitars are tough, low, and twangy; and the drums get walloped hard. The songs, co-written with the likes of Bruce Robison, Todd Snider, and Jim Lauderdale, are edgy and emotional.
Ingram can deliver a sweet sentiment, as he does in the lovely "I Would" and the title track, but he spends most of HEY YOU working through failing relationships ("Talk About," "How Many Days"), telling a good story ("Biloxi," "Inna from Mexico"), or just rockin' out ("Barbie Doll," "Mustang Burn"). Any doubts about Ingram's hard-country cred are laid to rest in "Anymore Good Loving," as perfect a heartbroke country song as you could imagine. But while HEY YOU makes a fine CD, it really isn't music meant to be listened to on the stereo of an S.U.V. This is music that sounds best late on a Saturday night, blasting live from the beer-slicked stage of a honky-tonk. minimize