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Title: plain and straight, circa 1951
Review: A CD focused largely on a musician's life on the road doesn't strike me as a particularly inspired idea. Wayne Hancock, however, manages to pull it off, through a combination of sheer likability, capable songwriting, and a few songs on other subjects. The last category includes "Sands of Time," which sounds not just like a tune Hank Williams could have written but like one he's actually singing. It's surely one of the most dead-on, scary Hank imitations of all time. With an approach that derives both strength and weakness from its affinity to Hank, Hancock's is a musical sensibility stuck in 1951, when people still talked about "hot rods" (as in "Miller, Jack & Mad Dog," a commentary on the hazards of drunk driving circa, I take it, five decades ago). I'm not complaining, mind you. Hancock is comfortable and convincing, and if you like your honkytonk and Western swing plain and straight -- and I certainly do -- here it is.
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