MP3 Hurricane Dave - Bar Stools & Church Pews: Songs For Friday Night & Sunday Morning

Reverent Irreverence: country drinking songs mixed with gospel and contemporary Christian music.

12 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Traditional Country, GOSPEL: Country Gospel



Details:
Heâs a mighty wind, a musical Category 4. But unlike his meteorological namesakes, Hurricane Dave brings gusts of good times and leaves a satisfied audience in his path.
The South Florida-based singerâs debut CD for the Big Blue Dolphin label is âBar Stools & Church Pews: Songs For Friday Night & Sunday Morning,â an album of rollicking honky-tonkers, serious introspective songs and light-hearted tunes â all with a solid country sound.
âIâve come to believe that bars and churches feed and comfort the spirit in similar ways, and Iâve tried to convey that with the title cut and the other 11 songs on this album,â Hurricane Dave says. âReverent irreverence, I call it.â
The âBar Stoolsâ segment of the CD starts with a good olâ Hank Williams number, âSettinâ The Woods On Fire,â then eases into James Taylorâs âBartenderâs Blues,â before kicking into Aaron Barkerâs âWhat A Friday Night Is Forâ â the latter two allowing the gifted Bobby Dodd to show his prowess on the pedal steel and dobro.
The tavern tunes continue with a slowed-down version of the emotional Webb Pierce hit, âThere Stands The Glass,â and a red-hot retooling of Cal Smithâs âThe Lord Knows Iâm Drinking.â
Dave wrote the haunting transitional song, âBar Stools & Church Pews,â on which he is accompanied only by his guitar and harmonica.
âFor every shot of Jim Beam, thank God for John 3:16,â the lyric goes, leading into the âChurch Pewsâ segment.
With 19-year-old fiddling wizard Tommy Slaughter driving the train, âChurch Pewsâ opens with the heart-thumping, toe-tapping âLife Is Like A Mountain Railroad (Lifeâs Railway to Heaven).â If youâre not out on the dance floor by the middle of the first verse, thereâs something dreadfully wrong with your feet.
That traditional gospel number is followed by a pensive yet sensible take on religion called âWhere The Light Comes From.â
âI heard that on a Wild Jimbos album many years ago, and it stuck with me,â Dave says. âI just thought it made an awful lot of sense.â
Also making sense in a more traditional way is âThere Is A Reason,â penned by Alison Krauss sideman Ron Block.
In sharp contrast is the following cut, master storyteller John Prineâs witty âEverybody,â which tells of chewing the fat with Jesus during a most unusual encounter.
Closing out the album in a more traditional manner, Dave offers the Carter Familyâs âDiamonds In The Roughâ and the classic inspirational anthem, âHow Great Thou Art,â perhaps the purest country version of that song to be recorded in recent memory.
âBar Stools & Church Pewsâ was produced by Josh Noland, whose own recording of George Gershwinâs âRhapsody In Blueâ was hailed for its innovative guitar work and has a place of honor in the Country Music Hall of Fame archives in Nashville.
Nolandâs famous Big Red Guitar can be heard throughout Hurricane Daveâs CD â his clean, precise picking reminiscent of the late Chet Atkins.
Hurricane Dave, who sings, plays acoustic guitar and blows a mean harp on âBar Stools & Church Pews,â began his career as a bar musician in Washington, D.C. He has spent time in Nashville, as well as Southern California and Las Vegas. These days he calls the Fort Lauderdale area home, and, despite taking hits from Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005, plans to stay a good, long while.
âIâm a hurricane,â he says. âWhere else am I going to go?â