The Country Side Of Harmonica Sam

This album, the latest collection of Honky-Tonk masterpieces by this generations finest practitioners of the genre, is appropriately titled Broken Bottle, Broken Heart. Indeed, it was with both a bottle and a broken heart that I first sat down in my favorite chair to listen to these 14 songs of love and loss. Now, Ill be the first to tell you that it isnt always the best idea to mix heartache with alcohol while listening to real country music like this - the kind that once drifted out of car radios on back roads, blared out of jukeboxes, and echoed through dancehalls and Honky-Tonks across the U.S.A. Hell, that combination can be downright dangerous to the brokenhearted. But that midnight while taking a drink, closing my eyes, and getting lost in the music contained in the grooves of this LP, I was transported. I was taken away to another place, another time. It was as if my troubles were lifted, floating off into the horizon with the drifting sound of the steel guitar and soaring vocals. Visions of spit shined boots two-stepping across a well-worn dancefloor on a long-gone Saturday night swirled through my mind, with the twang of the guitar and the shuffling rhythms taking my blues away. Maybe it was the tequila talking... but I suspect that it was the music at work - the kind of real Country Music that I think these Swedish gentlemen are the very best at.Big Sandy