Passion Is No Ordinary Word

Buzz Cason has a storied past. A member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, he’s responsible for writing a pair of songs that became an intrinsic part of the pop canon — “Everlasting Love,” a song that’s achieved the rarified status of charting in every decade since it was written (courtesy of Robert Knight, Gloria Estefan, and U2), and “Soldier of Love,” a classic lauded with laurels of its own, thanks to covers by The Beatles, Pearl Jam, Marshall Crenshaw and Arthur Alexander. Yet Cason has also achieved distinction behind the mike,  having sung background vocals with such venerable icons as Bob Willis, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Rogers, and, most impressively, Elvis Presley

To his credit, Cason hasn’t been content to rest on his accomplishments. Over the course of the last decade, he’s released a number of solo recordings that prove he’s still very much part of the here and now. Together, they’e laid the groundwork for what may very well be the best album of Cason’s career. If nothing else, Passion proves that nearly 60 years after making his bow in the biz, he’s as incisive as ever.

Like Chip Taylor, a man whose career parallels his own, Passion finds Cason demonstrating the  grit and verve necessary to elevate this effort through undeterred tenacity. On tracks like “Passion,” “Bread,” “Walkin’,” and “Just As Gone,” he hammers the lyrics with a gruffness and growl that recalls Dylan’s raspy drawl, yet in the most menacing sort of way.. Like the Bobster, Cason’s uncompromising, and when he tears into the straight ahead delivery that accompanies such songs as “That’s the Way It Is” and “Like a Dog,” he sounds like nothing less than an unrepentant insurgent, as cutting and contemporary as any upstart a third of his age. Indeed, at 77, Cason’s a rocker reborn. Passion affirms that purpose in both title and tack.