Cowboy Town (CD - 2007)

Brooks and Dunn are almost single-handedly responsible for the rise of acts like Big 'n' Rich, Toby Keith, and the rest of the post-millennium country-rock gang. On 2007's COWBOY TOWN, Brooks and Dunn make plain their role at the pivot point between the rowdy present and the outlaw country past. Specifically, the wry "The Ballad of Jerry Jeff Walker" (featuring a cameo vocal by the beloved Texas cult hero himself) and the hagiographic "Johnny Cash Junkie (Buck Owens Freak)" acknowledge the duo's enormous debt to their country-rock forebears. Elsewhere, ballads like "Proud of the House We Built," "American Dreamers," and "Cowgirls Don't Cry" fit nicely against more revved up honky tonkers like "Drunk On Love" and the rollicking title track. The closing number "God Must Be Busy" caps off COWBOY TOWN with an atypically thoughtful and subtly political song about the state of the union circa 2007 that's far from jingoistic blather, proving yet again that Brooks and Dunn are no ordinary country boys.

Brooks & Dunn began revving up their redneck credentials with Hillbilly Deluxe, a record with no small debt to Big & Rich's gonzo strut, and they continue that path on its 2007 follow-up, Cowboy Town. Despite the title, Cowboy Town doesn't feel that western -- it's a slick, swaggering set of rock & roll, designed for sports bars, not honky tonks. Brooks & Dunn have always teetered between being just a bit too commercial and thoroughly country, but this is one of their efforts where the seesaw tips toward one direction definitively, as this album is as oversized as Texas without sounding a lick like the Lonestar State. Well, there's one exception to the rule -- Jerry Jeff Walker is roped in for a duet on "Ballad of Jerry Jeff Walker," an exceptional homage to his funny, loping signature sound that's easily the best thing here, and not because it's the most country: it's because it's the least mannered tune here. The other highlights on Cowboy Town share a similar wild, wooly spirit, as the duo turns out pretty good Stonesy rockers on "Put a Girl in It" and "Chance of a Lifetime" (which has a nice dip into John Anderson territory on the chorus), grinds out a wonderfully weird slice of ZZ Top boogie on "Drop in the Bucket," and pumps out a deliriously fun "Tequila," whose pumping Farfisa organ on a one-chord riff can't help but bring to mind the Sir Douglas Quintet. All these arrive in the middle of the album, offering a spike of life after it seems that Brooks & Dunn have gotten too mannered with the opening track and the plodding "Proud of the House We Built." And that mannered impression isn't wrong -- Brooks & Dunn have crafted these songs, along with the silly anthem "American Dream" (a song where Merle Haggard, Neil Armstrong, and MLK are shoehorned into one bridge) and "God Must Be Busy" (a litany of destruction and sadness, amber alerts, "the Bloods and Crips are at it...old folks can't afford the drugs they can't live without"), with an eye on the middle of the road, and they do it well enough that this music will likely win them that audience yet again. But it's that section of rowdy rockers in the middle of the album where the duo comes alive, and they're what saves this record from being too studied and dull. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize