Live CD From Reckless Kelly Is Smashing Hit
Thursday, August 24th, 2006
Reckless Kelly has unmistakable energy on stage and great songwriting ability. So when the band announced that it would record it’s show at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas, on March 31, 2006, most fans were excited. There is also a DVD which was made of this show, but I have yet to see it. The live CD did not disappoint, and listening to it is just like being there live. The new CD, called Reckless Kelly Was Here, is a top notch effort from the Austin-based group.
The live CD opens with Sixgun, a song from the 2005 release Wicked Twisted Road. The guitar playing of Willie Braun gives the song a Guns N’ Roses sound. This a song about a girl who uses him to help rob a bank and then doublecrosses him and takes all the money. Even through it all, it’s not the money or the guns that he misses, but it’s Sadie. True true love. The following track is Castanets. The song is ok, but it has been written many different times in other ways, such as Trace Adkins’ Honky Tonk Bodankodonk, Mel McDaniel’s Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans on, and Jon Christopher Davis’ Honky Tonk Momma Blue Jean Booty Queen. It’s not a bad song, just not real original. Motel Cowboy Show, also from the Wicked Twisted CD, is a true story about going to see the 1980s band Motel Cowboy. The lyrics visualize the scene for the listener, “Where there is drinking, dancing and there’s no place else to go.” The song has a very pleasant sound to it. It’s one of Reckless Kelly’s better works. It’s a good honky tonk song.
I Still Do, an early Reckless Kelly release (Millican, 1998) is the first sign of a true, soft love song with lines like, “Well I guess I must have slipped and let my guard down. But you know you’re always gonna be my girl. And I get turned around and lose direction. Sometimes I forget you’re my whole world.” This is clearly an early work for Reckless Kelly. It’s a well-written song, but they are much more refined now. The fiddle playing of Cody Braun and the tambourine work of David Abeyta works great in the cover of Richard Thompson’s 1952 Vincent Black Lighting. It’s an interesting song to cover, as it’s not one of my favorites. Honestly, I’m not sure I remember what the original sounds like, but I like the sound of what Reckless Kelly has done with it. Seven Nights in Eire, again from the Wicked Twisted Road CD, continues with Abeyta’s tambourine work and Braun’s fiddle play, and the audience reaction shows that the song is popular. This song has the Irish pub feel to it, and every time I’ve ever heard it, it cracks me up, because I picture a little 3 foot leprachaun dancing around the bar. Not that it’s happened, but that’s what I envision.
Break My Heart Tonight is a brand new Reckless Kelly song, written by lead singer Willie Braun, and is the first to be released to radio. And this song is greatness, and I would not be the least bit surprised to see this song top the Texas Music Charts soon. With lines like “And they say misery loves company. But it damn sure ain’t looking for me. I’ll be alright. I just gotta find someone to break my heart tonight”, how could it not? Nobody’s Girl is from the 2003 Under the Table, Above the Sun CD. The song was written by Willie Braun with his brother Mickey, from Mickey and the Motorcars. I love the beat of the song, and it tells a telling story about a girl who’s daddy left her as a child. That tragedy has scarred her for life and she won’t open her heart to anybody, hence “nobody’s girl”. Reckless Kelly mixes in Hey Say May with a cover of the legendary Freddy Fender’s humorous Guacamole. What more can be said about this dope-smoking song? It’s just a funny song, and the band covers it well.
Vancouver, also from the 2003 Under the Table, Above the Sun CD, is another song written by Willie Braun. The song is full of emotion, and not the usual Reckless Kelly sound. The song starts out with “When the sun went down, you were sitting under someone else’s sunset, and I wasn’t around. You were wishing that I was the guy that you’d just met, and I was probably stumbling down some back street alley in Amsterdam,” and pretty much grabs you from there. I get a big kick out of the lyrics to the new song Wiggles and Ritalin, which has a kicking beat to it. And this line especially cracks me up “let’s put on some Scooby Doo and roll a couple dooby doos.” It’s the second pot smoking song, along with Guacamole, saluting the joys of getting high. Wild Western Windblown Band, penned by Bruce Hauser and recorded previously on Reckless Kelly’s Live at the Stubbs CD in 2000, is a popular song with the group’s fans. I think it’s the sound more than the lyrics that make it popular. It’s about the roadlife of a country band. Not bad, but not great. Baby’s Gone Blues, from the 1998 Millican release, is another example of how far Reckless Kelly has progressed musically. This song, while decent musically, is not a well written song. There work since the Millican release has been consistenly better.
The title track from the Wicked Twisted Road is a nice melancholy, accoustic song about the struggles of life, and making tough choices and facing the results of making bad decisions. The line “My first love was an angry painful song. I wanted one so bad I went and did everything wrong. A lesson in reality would come before too long. Yeah, my first love was an angry painful song.” Each verse of the song starts and ends with the same line. For some reason, I like that part of it. It’s catchy. One of Reckless Kelly’s most popular songs is Crazy Eddie’s Last Hurrah from the 2000 The Day CD. It’s an upbeat song about killing an ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. I guess it could be a little controversial, but it’s a definite party song live. During the end of the song, Willie Braun introduces the band to good audience reaction. Reckless Kelly closes out the live part of the CD with a cover of the Beattles Revolution. It’s a good closer to the live show, except that it goes on forever - to the tune of almost 10 minutes!
There’s two extra studio tracks at the end of the CD - Break My Heart Tonight and Wiggles & Ritalin. Reckless Kelly’s music has continued to get better and grown over the years. It’s still a hard blend of roots rock and honky-tonk. I’ve read several accounts that say they are inconsistent with their music. But I think that as a good thing. It shows their versatility as they are capable of pulling off both. Listen to their live CD Reckless Kelly Was Here and you’ll know what I mean. Their live show is even more entertaining - I recommend checking them out if you’ve never seen them.
