CD Review: Cowboy Fandango

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By Richard Anderson

‘Cowboy Fandango’
Michael Hurwitz and the Aimless Drifters
Meadowlark Records (www.MikeHurwitz.com)

It wasn’t that long ago that I considered myself a sworn and certified enemy of country music. But then something happened – I moved West, I got a little older, I learned a little more about the history of this music, its myths and legends, its connections to other forms I respected and revered – and I became a fan.

Albeit a mighty picky one. I mostly go for cowboy swing, a la Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and yodeled ballads of Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams Sr. and their descendents, and I’ve also sort of developed a fondness for the folky, funky acoustic stuff like that of Michael Hurwitz.

Hurwitz, who lives and practices his art over in Alta, Wyo., likes the swing and the blues and those old corny ballads, and he also write songs of his own – quirky takes on the standard country fare, tales populated by characters that are wacky and weird but completely believable. Best of all, he has a dry, dusty voice to match his wit and that lends an air of authenticity to his stories of pickup trucks, parties, prison cells and peculiar people.

The latest example is “Cowboy Fandango,” cut with a loose confederation of regional players –Tom Broderick, Brian Wicklund, Eric Thorin, Ed Domer, Nancy Thorwardson, Jay Vern, Jerry Linn, Ben Winship, Chuck McLaughlin, Juni Fisher, Greg Creamer, Pop Wagner and Jeff Newsom – he dubs the Aimless Drifters, and released on his own Meadowlark Records. Hurwitz describes the collection of 13 originals as “a guided tour of the West as he knows it,” and if that doesn’t want to make you want to hang out and party with this song-slinger, you either have no sense of adventure or you are already the victim of an overdeveloped one.

Musically, there’s not lot on “Cowboy Fandango” that you haven’t already heard. Songs follow pleasantly familiar chord progressions and age-old structures. But the lyrics often are fun and funny, or corny but convincing, and the performance are rock solid, and not only not putting on airs but totally unfamiliar with the meaning of the expression. All in all, it’s as simple and satisfying as a good yarn told by a stranger you met at a gas station off some God-forsaken exit between here and wherever.
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CD Review: Cowboy Fandango | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

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