Bruce Robison's "His Greatest"

Bruce Robison fans fall into one of two categories. The mainstream country fans who may have never heard the name Bruce Robison but know his songs from C&W radio (“Travelin’ Soldier”,“Angry All The Time”, Desperately" and “Wrapped”). The hipper alt country fans (yeah, that’s you HickoryWind reader) have heard Bruce sing his own songs or know them through his brother Charlie Robison’s covers. On “His Greatest” some of his best and best known songs, have been recut and rereleased. Bruce’s vocals, less country than his brother Charlie’s, are smoother and recall some of Albert Lee’s solo vocals. Bruce shines as a singer/songwriter on the semi-acoustic tracks and on the faster tracks his band rocks out with a roots rock/pub rock feel that stands with the best of Rockpile and Dave Edmunds.

The stand out tracks: Bruce’s take on “Travelin’ Soldier”, the honky tonkin’ “The Good Life”, the rockin’ “Poor Man’s Son” and the Cajun flavored “Red Letter Day”.

Visit Bruce on myspace and have a listen.

Complaints: Ten tracks? When you’re asking fans to buy songs for the second (or maybe third) time you need to add some bonus tracks, demos, etc. A duet with co-writer Charlie Robison on “Right Man for the Job” and any version of “Tonight” would have been welcome additions to this much too brief career retrospective.