Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 02/03/2009
Since
Aaron Tippin first cracked the country charts back in 1991 with
"You've Got to Stand for Something," the title cut of his debut album, he's had a slew of successes and some dry spells. As part of that wave of "new traditionalists" who took country to a new height of popularity in America,
Tippin's macho brand of swagger, honky tonk, and patriotic songs resonated very well through about 1996. He hit a semi dry spell until 1998, and was back in 2000 and 2002 (when
"Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly" crossed over into the pop Top 20). In other words, no matter what the trend in the music is -- and it's as creatively empty as it's ever been in 2009 --
Tippin's brand of country music never truly goes out of fashion. As if to reaffirm not only his place in the tradition, but to remind listeners of the wealth of great music the tradition has given them,
Tippin's
In Overdrive is a collection of "truckin' country" songs about 18-wheelers and the men who drive them.
Tippin's muse for this record is the late
Jerry Reed, who brought truckin' music into the pop charts for the first time in the 1970s, and continued to write it for the rest of his life. This set sounds like it could have been recorded 30 or 40 years ago, despite the somewhat modern production sounds.
Tippin's hard Southern dialect and his feel for this collection of classic tunes make it sound like something out of time and space.
The set begins with
Reed's
"East Bound and Down," complete with banjos, roiling electric guitars, and a one-two shuffling bassline.
Tippin sounds like he's havin' a ball -- it's rockin' country, full of pumped-up testosterone party-hard energy. And it goes on from here, with a burning Southern rock version of
Terry Fell's 1962 hit
"Truck Drivin' Man," with prickly pedal steels, Telecasters raging, and double-time drums.
Earl Green's
"Six Days on the Road" is here of course -- closer in spirit to
Commander Cody's version than
Dave Dudley's -- as is
John Anderson's
"Chicken Truck," Buford Amber's
"Long White Line," Hank Mills'
"Girl on the Billboard," a great reading of
Merle Haggard's
"Movin' On," and
Dave Loggins'
"Roll On," just to name a few -- all of them done with hardcore hillbilly rock & roll energy and a swampy verve. There is also a pair of originals here: a sentimental -- as well as astute and sensitive -- story-ballad called
"Drivin' Fool" and a cut that simply doesn't belong here at all,
"Drill Here, Drill Now." It's a lunkheaded painfully obvious attempt at a hit single disguised as a clarion call to the working-class masses. The funny thing is, the masses voted in 2008 for something a little more complex than this shortsighted "solution." Thankfully, this overtly and clumsily written rocker is the last track on the album. Other than this glaring misstep,
In Overdrive is a solid, beautifully executed album that's a hell of a lot of fun.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
;)
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