Are You Ready for the Big Show
Recorded over two nights in September 2000 at Austin's Continental Club,Are You Ready for the Big Show?stitches together a handful of Radney Foster favorites, five new songs, a little stage patter, and the whoops of an adoring crowd to produce a compendium of good-time Texas roots-rock. Aswirl in organ, slide guitar, and twinkling mandolin (courtesy ofNickel Creek's Chris Thile), the first four tracks sound like so much fun you won't notice they're all about hard luck and heartbreak. Things drag a bit in the middle--blame the far too precious "Went for a Ride"--but Foster recovers quickly with a sharp version of his 1992 hit "Nobody Wins" and a blazing pair of tunes drawn from 1999'sSee What You Want to See: "Folding Money" and the set-closing "I'm In." The likes ofPat Green,Jack Ingram, and brothersBruceandCharlieRobison may aspire to the success ofRobert Earl Keen, but this disc offers a better role model.--Anders Smith-Lindall