James Hand—Shadow on the Ground—Rounder–2009
James Hand review | from CountryMusicPride.com / Steve Leftridge
James Hand is countrier than you. In fact, he was country before (and while and after) country was cool—the 57-year-old has been playing his point-blank honky-tonk in Texas roadhouses since he was in his teens, and now, four decades on, he is a beloved, Willie Nelson-endorsed local legend. For 35 of those years, Hand’s music was exclusive to those folks who spilled beer while scuffing across neon-bathed bar floors around West, Texas (seriously: he’s from a town called West), but in 2006, Hand signed with Rounder and released The Truth Will Set You Free, finally putting Hand on a national stage. Now the troubadour is back with his second Rounder release, Shadow on the Ground, due September 8th.
Shadow, like its predecessor, sounds like almost nothing else being released this year—it’s music that, for the most part, people stopped making around ‘64, and James Hand’s records are nice complements to your Ernest Tubb and Webb Pierce titles. Indeed you can hear the influence of Hand’s honky-tonk heroes—the playful grit of Johnny Horton (“What Little I Got Left”) , the careful balladry of Lefty Frizzell (“The Pain of Loving You”), and especially the heartbreak phrasing of mid-period George Jones (“Don’t Depend on Me”). But mostly, Hand appropriates Hank Williams’ soulful whine, the most obvious reference point—check out that pose he strikes on the cover of Truth, bending at the microphone in a white suit and cowboy hat, looking like Luke the Drifter himself….
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