Dangerous Spirits
Hubbard may have written "Up Against the Wall Red-neck Mother," but the song couldn't be farther from the meaning of his music.  He's lived much of his life on the road--touring steadily for some 25 years now--leading from the birth of progressive country in Dallas and Austin, to fitful honky tonk recordings, to his country folk masterpiecesLoco Gringo's Lamentand the recent, and perhaps best,Dangerous Spirits.  Hubbard has a wind scratched voice and a disposition both philosophical and spiritual that celebrates the beauties that, as he sings in "Ballad of the Crimson Kings," "sparkle and fade away."   Hubbard's lyrical vision is fierce and unflinching, encompassing the existential shock of Flannery O'Connor and the mystery of fellow Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt.--Ray Francis Kasten