Electric Rodeo
Shooter Jennings's 2005 debut,Put the "O" Back in Country, outlined the artistic differences--and similarities--between himself and his parents, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. This second time out, his tight, raw trio bristling behind him, his vocal roar remains less weathered, though he deliberately, momentarily evokes Waylon on "Some Rowdy Women," the darkly futile "Hair of the Dog," and "Little White Lines," a fearful, foreboding tale of cocaine abuse. His reflective, vulnerable side emerges on the sorrowful "The Song Is Slipping Away" and the painfully contrite ballad "Aviators." Sly humor drives a revival of Hank Williams Jr.'s "Living Proof" that begins by paying homage to the original, luring the listener into momentarily believing that Jennings, too, is desperate to free himself from a famous daddy's shadow. It is, of course, a brilliant fake-out. Near the song's end, he and the band flip right into the famous instrumental vamp Waylon used on so many of his hits, a wise-assed move worthy of Waylon himself.--Rich Kienzle