Shooter Jennings: Family Man auf CD

"I am beginning to believe the deals our forefathers made with the Devil not that long ago sealed our fate as well as theirs. How many generations will the Calling seduce and intoxicate? Did any of us have a choice? The salvation of the lonely road country blues fever is passed down, each generation stubbornly as rebellious as the one that infected and inspired it. Thank God for the Curse; the velocity and quality of modern day Roots music is the only saving grace I see in these sorry times and it gives me hope for our children."- Luther Dickinson / North Mississippi Allstars and the Black Crowes.

Shooter Jennings has worn many hats throughout his career: the self-described "son of a rebel saint," the hell-raising vigilante minister at a revival of true country music, the radical prophet using rock and roll as his medium, the guiding light for an ever-growing army of young musicians who are, like Shooter himself, outsiders in today's music business. Now after a career where he has done everything from sharing the stage with Alice in Chains to writing songs for the Oak Ridge Boys, Shooter will finally reveal the man at the heart of it all when he releases Family Man on 429 Records.

As the title suggests, Family Man is Shooter's most personal and introspective album to date, focusing on his home life with fiancee Drea de Matteo and their two children, the endless temptations of life on the road, his Southern heritage and upbringing, and his unique position among today's country musicians.

Shooter relies heavily on his own experiences throughout the album and as a result many of the songs are very autobiographical in nature, whether he's addressing critics on "The Family Tree," paying tribute to his roots on the hard-rocking "Southern Family Anthem" ("We may be trash, but we're a family," he sings), or diving into deeply personal territory with heartfelt ballads like "Daddy's Hands," a song which was inspired by an illness in his fiancee's family last year.

"Drea's dad had a stroke right after Christmas," he says, "It was really tough. We all were in the hospital from right after Christmas until late January and it was insanely hard on Drea to watch her dad in this debilitated state, but it had a double edge cut to me as it reminded me of all the years I spent in the hospital with my own dad. I'd never been able to visit that emotion until I went through it through Drea's eyes. So this song is kind of a culmination of both of those experiences for me."

Elsewhere on the album, Shooter revisits an old Southern folktale with the story of "The Black Dog," writes a bittersweet ode to an old friend on "Born Again," and delivers a perfect love song with "The Deed and the Dollar."

Musically, Shooter says that Family Man was heavily influenced by artists such as Bob Dylan, John Prine, and Harry Nilsson, as well as his new-found friendship with legendary songwriter Steve Young, the man behind such classics as "Lonesome On'ry and Mean" and "Seven Bridges Road." Shooter even pays tribute to Young on the album, covering his "White Trash Song" as a duet with underground country star Scott H. Biram.

Recording in his recently adopted hometown of New York, producing himself for the first time, and playing with a group of extremely talented musicians he has dubbed "The Triple Crown," Shooter is more relaxed and confident on this album than ever before. Featuring renowned jazz pianist Erik Deutsch, guitarist Chris Masterson, drummer Tony Leone, bassist Jeff Hill, pedal steel player John Graboff, and rising roots music star Eleanor Whitmore, who contributes harmony vocals as well as playing mandolin and fiddle, the Triple Crown brings to mind such ensembles as Merle Haggard's Strangers, Bob Wills' Texas Playboys, and Buck Owens' Buckaroos, becoming an integral part of the music and adding their unique stamp to each and every note. To complete the lineup, Shooter brought in iconic harmonica player Mickey Raphael, who is best known for his long partnership with Willie Nelson.

"I really wanted to cut a harmonica-heavy album," Shooter says, "I feel like these days there aren't enough harmonicas on country records. And I don't mean blues harmonica played to create the front porch effect. I'm talking about melodic, beautiful, midnight cowboy harmonica like on the old records in the '60's and '70's. And there are two kinds of people that play that harmonica, Mickey Raphael and Mickey Raphael fans."

Shooter also enlists the help of several friends throughout the album. In addition to Biram and Whitmore, Family Man also features roots music queen Patty Griffin, rock guitarist Tom Morello (who Shooter calls his "guru"), and Black Oak Arkansas frontman Jim Dandy, who joins Shooter on the socially conscious Southern hippie anthem "15 Million Light Years Away."

"Jim and I met a long time ago at a Memphis show," he says, "I was so excited to meet him and we stayed in touch a bit. Drea had really turned me onto Black Oak Arkansas, and I went nuts over them. He's such an amazing dude. I met him again during the Black Ribbons tour and he came backstage and handed me a CD of unreleased material. I gravitated towards this amazing song "15 Million Light Years Away." I always said I'd cut it and I tried it with the .357's and Hierophant a few times but it never came together. This time around it worked like magic. So I'm really excited about that ."

At the heart of the album lies "The Outsider," an autobiographical tune which Shooter wrote as a tribute to people like himself who simply do not fit in.

"The song kind of paints the picture of how I have felt different from most of the world from the day I was born," he says, "The first verse deals with kind of how I feel about the world and conformity. I could never fit in, I never had a chance and I was always somewhat of an outcast, especially in school. Then as I grew older I felt more and more of how the curse aspect of my name came into play. I would never change my life for anything, but as I entered into music, I saw how all eyes were on me, waiting for me to fail, and every possible wrong move I made was attacked and ripped to shreds. I've had to develop pretty thick skin to be able to handle all the criticism and opinions. Everyone has an impression of me before I walk in the door. Then the last verse is kind of my call to arms for all the other outsiders, for I feel like the world is made a better place by all of the outsiders."

Indeed, the term "outsider" is a fitting one to describe Shooter's music and career. The only son of two country music giants, he began his career as a teenager by recording an industrial rock album with his father, which was later re-recorded and released as Waylon Forever.

He later formed the band Stargunn and after relocating to L. A., they quickly gained a reputation as one of the area's top underground rock bands, being named one of the best unsigned acts in the nation by Music Connection and catching the attention of Tom Morello, who produced a still-unreleased album for the group. After the band's breakup, Shooter was presented with the opportunity to audition for hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver, but he says that he was never interested in the job, choosing instead to pursue a career in country music.

In 2005, Shooter began his solo career by issuing Put the O Back in Country, which included the hit singles "4th of July" and "Steady at the Wheel," the latter of which held the #1 spot on the Texas Music Chart for eight weeks. After gaining a sizable and devoted fan base and appearing in the Oscar-winning film Walk the Line, Shooter followed his debut with the critically acclaimed Electric Rodeo a year later. After releasing The Wolf in 2007, he did what seemed like a complete 360 with his 2010 release Black Ribbons, an apocalyptic concept album which featured narration by horror maestro Stephen King. The independently-released album was hailed as a masterpiece by many in the underground press and the Boston Globe called it one of "the best albums you probably didn't hear" in their year-end list. (The album was reissued by 429 Records in February.)

In early 2011, Shooter once again caused a stir when he announced the creation of a new music movement called XXX, an outlet for artists who are "too country for rock, too rock for country." After playing these artists (many of whom are unsigned or signed to independent labels) on his long-running radio program on Sirius XM's Outlaw Country, Shooter has quickly gained a reputation as one of the biggest supporters of underground and independent music in the United States and, fittingly, Billboard named him one of "the best and brightest music industry characters" in March 2011.

It is this clear vision, this undefeatable XXX spirit, paired with his rebel DNA and the mature outlook and emotional strength of a father and a Family Man, that makes Shooter Jennings one of the most exciting artist of his era and makes this his best album to date.

(429records. com)

Rezensionen

,,Waylon Jennings' Sohn kommt nach einigen Stilausflügen wieder beim Country an und singt kernig patzige, rotzig rebellische Songs übers Familienvatersein." (Rolling Stone, August 2012)