Brian Burns – Angels & Outlaws
Nothing like having a regional hit to get you in the basement studio to finish your second collection. Dallas honky-tonk singer-songwriter Brian Burns introduced a live version of “Welcome To Texas”, the lead track from his work-in-progress, on a local radio show and, as the story goes, the switchboard lit up. In the days after, it was the most requested song in the nation’s largest country market; the station added the aircheck to its rotation, and soon other stations started getting requests.
A true studio craftsman, Burns makes sure every note is in the right place on Angels & Outlaws. The results are highly polished, intensely personal and easily accessible ballads and rockers that refuse to shake the dust of Texas, transcending Nashville slickness.
Burns’ acoustic guitar, bass and accordion are accompanied by Gary Carpenter’s pedal steel and an assortment of guests guitarists; together they turn in engaging numbers with tastefully exuberant solos (B.W. Stevenson’s “East India Company”), playful lyrics (“Don’t tell momma I’m a guitar picker, she thinks I’m just in jail,” from “I Couldn’t Lay That Guitar Down”), and manly-yet-sensitive sentiments (“Send Me A Honky-Tonk Angel”).
As for “Welcome To Texas”, it’s a mean-spirited shitkicker sung with heightening venom about the exploitation of Texas by the rest of the country. Non-Lone Star citizens may find it off-putting, but it could be the catchiest Texas “yee-ha!” anthem since Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother”.