Review: If We Ever Make It Home by Wade Bowen
Texas Musician Gains Country Fans, CMT Video Exposure
Oct 27, 2008
The latest studio effort from Wade Bowen, If We Ever Make It Home, won't disappoint fans, either. The album, produced by J. R. Rodriguez, is a disc lush with soul-stirring lyrics that, although brand-new, feels well-worn and comfortable, like a favorite pair of jeans.
A native of Waco, Texas, Bowen became a bona-fide sensation on his native state's music scene with the 2002 release of his self-released album, Try Not to Listen. The title track hit the Top 10 on the Texas Music Chart, cementing his statewide success and prompting the release of his second release, The Blue Light Live, an in-concert disc that earned Bowen "Album of the Year" and "Male Vocalist of the Year" titles from the leading online music retailer of Texas music.
Country Music Songs Climb the Texas Country Chart, CMT Video Countdown
With the attention and fan base generated by about eight years of performing on the Texas country-music/singer-songwriter circuit, Bowen landed a record deal with Sustain Records and released a successful studio debut for the label in 2006, Lost Hotel.
That record's God Bless this Town single went to the Top 10 of the Texas Music Chart and garnered a music video that spent several weeks at No. 1 on Country Music Television's Pure 12-Pack Countdown, alongside videos by big-name country stars Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson, to name but two.
Now, with the Sept. 30, 2008, unveiling of If We Ever Make It Home and its lead-off single, You Had Me at My Best, Bowen's created what may very well be the songwriter-artist's benchmark album. The dozen-track disc-his third studio album-finds the Lone Star songster who spent his childhood years soaking up the sounds of fellow Texan tunesmiths Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen making heartfelt, thought-provoking music all his own.
On first listen, the disc found this reviewer reminiscing about artists such as Texpatriates Steve Earle and Radney Foster. But Bowen's clearly crafted his own signature sound, thanks to his well-honed writing prowess and a stripped-down, honest delivery that only the one who lived the tale before it was a song set to music can deliver.
Country Music Songwriters Contribute to New CD
Nevertheless, the initial feel of artist Foster within Bowen's music, as it turns out, was on target. Later, reading the record's credits, Foster's name was listed as co-writer on From Bad to Good, one of two songs that Bowen was inspired to write as a result his wife's experience with postpartum depression:
"Dance a little closer. Laugh about this crazy day. Oh lay your head down on my shoulder. And we'll cry the world away," goes the poignant chorus. "We'll find a tender moment; let it heal up what it should. Love has always kept us going, going from bad to good. ..."
Another standout track, Daddy and the Devil, finds Bowen deftly accompanied by Kentucky native Chris Knight, whose life-tattered vocals lend the just-right touch to a moving song about a father's enduring alcohol-fueled relationship with the devil himself. "Daddy and the devil walk side by side. Me and momma, we tried to hide. He couldn't stay sober if he tried," shares Bowen, whose cautionary story reveals "it's the son who pays for the father's sins."
In spite of its sometimes pain-laced lyrics, If We Ever Make It Home represents a time of personal contentment for its creator.
"My last album, Lost Hotel, was about soul searching and finding a new direction in life," reveals Bowen, now a father of two. "This record is about being happy with your life, even within all that's going on inside and around us. It reflects my hope that there's a better future for us all and finding a better place, a peaceful place, while the world seems as if it's going in the other direction. ... "
Texas Music Inspired by Real Life
True to his word, Bowen's latest Sustain album isn't one music fans can spin just once, or even a few times, and fully "get everything it's about." Like an onion, it's revealed in layers, each one offering new-found glimpses into the performer's real life and each set to an emotive backdrop of sound.
With a who's who list of musicians contributing to If We Ever Make It Home, Bowen takes listeners with him on an open-road musical journey that fuses the artist's storytelling-songwriter roots-from Clark, Keen, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Nanci Griffith, to influences such as Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and longtime idol Bruce Springsteen.
Along the way, Bowen lands a clever twist on tales some have heard before, making them new again and enriching all within earshot. Above all, If We Ever Make It Home is raw with honesty and fueled by the artist's passion for living life and making music, with nary a filler song in sight. Writing fodder simply isn't within his soul's makeup.
Reference
About Wade Bowen. Available online at http://www.wadebowen.com/?content=about.
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