Johnny Bush – Kashmere Gardens Mud: A Tribute To Houston’s Country Soul

You might think an album devoted solely to Houston country would be limited, but you’d be wrong. The city was home to some of the giants of western swing and honky-tonk, and that’s the music Johnny Bush grew up on, but it has continued to yield all manner of country right up to the present.

This album — which complements his simultaneously published autobiography and is produced by that book’s co-author, Rick Mitchell — gathers the most stylistically and thematically diverse set of songs Bush has ever recorded. Even better, after years of struggling with voice problems, he’s singing near the top of his game, climaxing a comeback that’s been building for a decade.

Bush approaches each tune with confidence and grace, not to mention a range that makes most country singers sound feeble. He swings melodically on Moon Mullican’s “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone”, with hot backing from steel player Buddy Emmons, lead guitarist Bobby Caldwell, fiddler Bobby Flores and pianist Floyd Domino; shouts without strain on “Free Soul”, supported by former B.B. King bandleader Calvin Owens’ Blues Orchestra, plus Jesse Dayton burning a guitar solo you probably never realized he had in him; conveys all the ache and emptiness of Ted Daffan’s “Born To Lose” while somehow keeping it simultaneously jazzy and dreamy; trembles piously on Willie’s “Family Bible”; and moans weary but proud, even defiant, on Eddie Noack’s “These Hands”.

Bush sings his own autobiographical title song, a western ballad with spare acoustic accompaniment, in a style that verges on talking, then follows the mariachi intro to Dale Watson’s “Tequila And Teardrops” with bilingual lyrics phrased credibly in a passionate voice that aptly countrifies the classic Mexican ranchera style.

Bush near the top of his game scales some lofty heights indeed. As different as these songs are in style and instrumentation, his voice and far-reaching technique bend them each to his will, making them all of a piece. It has to be a sweet triumph for a man who doubtless wondered if he’d ever enjoy one again.