Hold You in My Heart
This is the most live-sounding Don Walser album yet, no doubt because for the first time in many years he's backed in the studio by his own Pure Texas Band (the sole exception is the title song, originally cut for the movieHi-Lo Country). The opening "Yodeling the Blues," which features some of Don's most rambunctious yodeling--on the first try, he pushes to the outer reaches of, and almost past, his range--sets the tone, with tracks like "El Paso Cowboy" settling effortlessly into his West Texas honky-tonk swing groove. Walser mixes it up a bit with "Rock-A-Billy Rage" (more boogie than 'billy, actually) and puts a Lone Star spin on classic Bakersfield with the original "Buck and Merle" and a cover ofHaggard's "Hungry Eyes." The rhythm section is solid, the soloists are short, snappy, and swinging, and if you think this stuff is "retro," you haven't spent a Saturday night in a small-town Texas dance hall.--John Morthland