Employing a stellar band that includes Eddie Biebel, Paul Skelton, and Dave Biller on guitar, Eddie Rivers on steel, Chris Darrell on bass, Bob Stafford on trombone, and John Doyle on clarinet, Hancock has brought the sounds of the past to the present on an album that would make both Wills and Hank Sr. proud. Of course it doesn�t hurt to have one of the masters in the form of Lloyd Maines sitting in the producer�s chair either. The sessions for
Tulsa
took place over a two day period and highlight a band and a band leader clearly at the top of their game. This friends and neighbors is country music in its truest and highest form.
On cuts like �Goin� to Texas When I�m Through� and the album�s title track we get to hear this ensemble cast at their western swing best with Hancock calling out of the music giving his band members their cues to take their leads and at times urging them onward and upward as he yells out �Go man, go! Lay it down!!!� The guitar work is excellent throughout, the horn players give the whole thing an added jump, and Hancock�s twangy vocals are the embodiment of the ghost of Hank Williams.
And when �The Train� takes a break from swingin� he shuffles into material that typifies the classic country sound. In these moments we get songs about drinkin�, driftin�, and life on the road and when you listen to songs like �Drinkin� Blues�, �Shootin� Star From Texas�, and �No Sleep Blues� you get the feeling that Hancock isn�t writing these songs as much as he is re-telling them from his own experience. That gritty honesty combined with the fact that we�re essentially hear live music being created in the moment helps create a sound that is as true and as real as it gets.
Over the course of Tulsa’s fourteen tracks Hancock mixes the magic of upbeat, swingin’ numbers with a taste of honky-tonk flavor that only serves to remind the listener how far from its roots today’s country music has strayed. In the end Wayne Hancock and his sound is a much about the heart of country music as it is its history…and on Tulsa that heart is beating and swinging loudly.
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