Cornell Hurd Band – Cool and Unusual Punishment
Imagine Ray Price and Nick Lowe playing keep away with Ray Benson’s Grammy, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the Cornell Hurd Band is like. Mixing soulful country shuffles with an irreverent sense of humor, Hurd and company have been settin’ ’em up and knockin’ ’em down in Austin since relocating here in 1989.
Their latest long player, Cool and Unusual Punishment, is representative of what you might hear in an hour-long live show: Both loopy originals (“Your Ex-Husband Sent Me Flowers ‘Cause He Feels Sorry For Me”, “I Don’t Care What It Is That You Did When You Lived In Ft. Worth”) and well-chosen covers by the likes of Moon Mullican, Spade Cooley and Lalo Guerrero (Louis Prima’s Mexican-American doppelganger — sorta).
The album also comes with between-song jokes ‘n’ stories, plus surprise visits from some very special guests such as Brian Hofeldt of the Derailers; Asleep At the Wheel alumni Chris O’Connell, Lucky Oceans and Floyd Domino; and, to great effect, the legendary Johnny Bush. Justifiably nicknamed “The Country Caruso” back when he was making his classic ’60s recordings for Scotty Moore’s Stop label, Bush lets his tenor soar on no less than four cuts here: his own compositions “The Devil’s Disciple” and “When I Close My Eyes I Feel You In His Arms”, the ol’ warhorse “Drivin’ Nails In My Coffin”, and Hurd’s “The Cold Morning Light”. That last one, after a few spins, turns out to be one of the two strongest cuts, along with the divorcee’s lament “She’ll Always Love Me”.
Though they’re initially overshadowed by the instantly catchy upbeat numbers, the heartache songs are what keep you coming back after the parties are over. In these tunes is the same heart that beats in the most classic of C&W ballads, namely the great jazz/R&B-flavored sides that Willie cut for Liberty in the early ’60s. Any fan of such incandescent music should seek solace in these songs, and any fan of real country music should find a new favorite in Cornell and his crew.