A worthwhile purchase.
Purveyors of their own patented ‘Red Dirt Metal’, Texas Hippie Coalition sound like what you’d get if you threw Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nickelback, Black Stone Cherry, Pantera, Black Label Society, Johnny Cash and ZZ top into a blender. It’s all tales of the Good ‘Ol South, delivered in a gritty, raucous style. Frontman Big Dad Ritch is the true driving force behind the band with his gravelly yet soulful bellow.
Getting the negatives out of the way first, it can be rather formulaic at times, with the odd banal lyric (particularly ‘Turn It Up’ and ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock And Roll’), but it’s still damn enjoyable. On the plus side, opener ‘Hands Up’ and ‘Outlaw’ benefit from grinding rhythms, ‘8 Seconds’ is a balls-out rocker, while ‘Damn You To Hell’ is a kind of Nu-Metal/Southern Rock hybrid. It’s not all brutal and in your face though, ‘Don’t Come Lookin’’ and ‘Paw Paw Hill’ stay true to the roots of Southern Rock with more story-telling style lyrics. And the album closer is a real surprise, ‘Think Of Me’ is a stirring, heartfelt ballad that actually comes across more like Hinder (no bad thing in my book), and demonstrates a different side to Big Dad Ritch’s voice.
It’s a good time for Southern-style Rock this issue*, with three varied releases being covered by myself. Though this is by far the heaviest, and sometimes the crudest, it’s still a worthwhile purchase.
Ant Heeks
(* Fireworks Magazine 54)
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