Ray Wylie Hubbard

06.20.2006 -- Review by: Shaun Harvey

Ray Wylie Hubbard has found a formula that works ... and if it ain’t broke there’s no need to fix it. Teaming up once again with his guitar playing buddy and long time producer Gurf Morlix, Hubbard has created an album that is full of boozy, barefooted, grind your hips rhythm and blues. Joined by the core group of Morlix on guitar, Rick Richards on drums, and George Reiff on bass, Ray Wylie Hubbard serves up these eleven tracks with grit, grease, and growling grace. "Snake Farm" is a study in man, god, and the devil as only Ray Wylie Hubbard can deliver ...

The title track kicks off the record with a swagger and a hiss and that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Snake Farm" rolls and rumbles and as Hubbard sings the chorus you get the picture of what’s in store for you, the merry listener: "snake farm, it just sounds nasty / snake farm, it pretty much is / snake farm, it’s a reptile house / snake farm ...oooooooghhhhh". What follows is god smoking cigarettes, the devil drinkin’ whiskey, and the band gettin’ down and dirty.

These are the sounds we’ve come to expect from Ray Wylie Hubbard ... tunes like "The Way of the Fallen" and "Wild Gods of Mexico" that are filled with dark images of religion and faith, as well as songs of hard fought experience like those found in "Old Guitar" and "Heartaches and Grease". In "Old Guitar" Hubbard pays homage to those blues masters that came before and paved the way and to the hours spent pounding on the old wood and wire ... "give a boy a guitar he’s going to play until his fingers bleed / got to raise him up right on muddy, lightning, hooker, and reed". And in "Heartaches and Grease" we get a sample of what it takes to be a Texas singer songwriter from the Ray Wylie Hubbard pont of view: "The young pups they ask me what make my kind / shameless women and pork rinds / desirable lips keep telling me lies / biscuits and bacon and fried pies".

Great songs are found throughout the album’s eleven tracks but I think Hubbard saves the best for last ... the rock n roll tribute of "Live and Die Rock and Roll" and a sweet, deep blues rendering of an older RWH classic "Resurrection". "Live and Die Rock N Roll" has a stomping groove and finds Hubbard paying tribute to all the greats from the Stones and Dylan, to MC5 and the Ramones, Muddy Waters and Hendrix. Rock references abound and it’s all set to the tune of "a stratocasater heart and a hi’watt soul / it’s live and die rock n roll". The album closes as Ray Wylie is joined by up-and-coming blues artist Ruthie Foster as the two together breathe new soul into the tune "Resurrection", which first appeared on Hubbard’s 1997 release "Dangerous Spirits" (Philo). Other guest artists on this great new album include Peter Rowan on mandolin on one track and the great Texas harmonica player Ray Bonneville on three cuts.

Ray Wylie Hubbard still is best known for his 1970’s outlaw country classic "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" but with each new release that comes from this song writing master, we begin to celebrate not only the individual songs but the body of work as well. The well-told story is that Robert Johnson met the devil at the crossroads and sold his soul for the blues. That story could apply to Ray Wylie Hubbard, except that in the modern re-telling, the devil may get the man’s soul, but Hubbard would walk away with at least twenty bucks from the fiery one’s pocket ... the devil would definitely want to listen to this new album while driving down the dark, blue highway and Ray ain’t givin’ em away for free.