Resentments – On My Way To See You

Loaded lineups like this can make for great sounding albums, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re tied together well. No matter how good the musicians are, squeezing pop vocalist Bruce Hughes between the grit of Jud Newcomb and Jon Dee Graham makes for some jarring transitions. Add Steve Bruton to the mix, and there are enough groaning gravel throats here to make a Ricola dealer wealthy.

The album’s track list is mostly filled with midtempo earnestness and oodles of gravitas. Highlights include Graham’s homage to fallen guitar comrade Jesse Taylor (“A big old wind came for him/Cryin’ big man passin by”), Newcomb’s somber twist on Adam Carroll’s “Ricebirds”, and Bruton’s “I Do My Drinking On The Weekends”.

The icing is Graham’s drop-dead treatment of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin'”, during which he wipes away all the pop elements of Nilsson’s Midnight Cowboy version in favor of a gut-level treatment that milks the tune for all the truth it ever had.

While a few other songs sound suspiciously like they might not have made the cut on these artists’ solo albums, the result is still a pleasing mixture of solid songs and stellar musicianship.