Country Is My Rock (CD - 2006)

Personnel: Pat McGrath (acoustic guitar); Troy Lancaster (electric guitar); Russ Pahl (steel guitar); Michael Rojas (keyboards); Jimmie Lee Sloas (acoustic bass); Dennis Holt (drums); Eric Darken (percussion); Chip Davis (background vocals).

Rootsy country singer Trent Tomlinson's songs of barroom brawls, drinking, love, and loss are set against a stripped-down backdrop of rock & roll twang on his full-length debut. Though songs like "Hey Batter Batter," about your basic bar fight, and "The Next Time," about your equally straightforward misguided one-night-stand, might peg him as the poster boy for juiced-up, skirt-chasin' rednecks, Tomlinson is no muscle-bound country meathead. His sensitive side is on open display on "A Good Run," as well as "Angels Like Her," whose smart lyrics accurately conjure the ruins of a love affair, and he charts the rocky courses of both romance and hangovers with equal flair.

Country Is My Rock -- as in country is Trent Tomlinson's rock & roll, and that may be true since he certainly rocks country harder than any young country buck outside of such mavericks as Hank Williams III, who would rather kick up a storm with his metal band anyway. Tomlinson isn't that crazed -- country may be his rock & roll, but it's also his rock as in the foundation of his music, and no matter how he cranks up the overdrive on the amps and boogies, he's still a country songwriter at heart, and a damn good one at that. Sometime his rock & roll act comes across as schtick, but like Hank Jr. -- or Kid Rock for that matter -- that sense of camp only enhances his persona, since he also has a knack for lean, hard, and melodic songs. Not everything here clicks -- sometimes he gets a little silly (which is preferable to getting a little sappy), and sometimes his voice is just a shade too thin -- but there are plenty of good, piledriving country-rockers and a handful of good barroom ballads, all performed with vigor and good humor, which makes this an excellent debut. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize