Gary Allan
While Nashville hitmakers Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney rose from clunky B-level stars to bankable stadium fillers, Gary Allan quietly tapped his foot waiting for the rest of the world to get hip to his cool. On his fifth album, the California surfer/singer--finally nominated for the CMA Horizon award in 2003--gets back to the smoldering alt-country-goes-mainstream groove that made 1999’s Smoke Rings in the Dark so brilliant, but which he’d abandoned on 2002’s Alright Guy. In a taut tenor, roughed up by cigarettes, liquor, and 3 A.M. ruminations, Allan sings about the inevitable surrender to romantic pain. On "Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey," he swaggers with roadhouse libido, bragging of "tellin’ white lies" as a blistering electric guitar break mocks it all. But by the next song ("Can’t Do It Today"), in which he angrily vows forgiveness won’t come soon for a cheating mate, the lyrics belie his ...
2003-09-30 - Mca
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