CHECK OUT RECKLESS KELLY!

This morning on SIRIUS XM OutQ's The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick, I talked a lot about music that you'll hear if you listen to SIRIUS XM Outlaw Country. In my opinion, it's a great year for the genre: albums from legends like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard have been great. But it's not just about the icons, there's lots of new(er) artists also, including The Drive-By Truckers, who have put out my favorite album of the year so far, The Big To-Do. 

Another contender for my favorite album of the year is Reckless Kelly, I love thier new album Somewhere In Time. I wasn't that familar with them: I'd heard their music on Outlaw Country, and I knew that they backed up Steve Earle on his cover of Warren Zevon's "Reconsider Me." But when Outlaw DJ Dallas Wayne was talking about the album so enthusiastically, I felt I had to check it out and it did not dissapoint. They are from the Austin scene, and the album features all songs written by another guy from that scene named Pinto Beckett. This is one of those albums (like The Big To-Do, or, last year, The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre) where there are just so many great, great songs and I had a hard time choosing. I love the two songs that we played today: the opener "Little Blossom" and "Bird On A Wire," but I wish we got to "You Hold The Bottle, I'll Hold The Wheel." I hate to call it "country-rock," because that term brings to mind The Eagles. RK aren't as ragged and raw as the Truckers, but they definitely aren't as pop as Henley and co. But Somewhere In Time does have lots of catchy songs, and it's almost a shame that it isn't a bit more slick: you almost could imagine this on country music radio among Brad and Kenny and Carrie and Keith. Not quite, but almost.

I can go on describing this album for you - I'm not the greatest record reviewer. Let me instead put it this way. You know that I love discovering artists who are "new" to me, but I don't actually discover many that I like. Hearing a few songs on the radio made me want the album, and now the album is making me want to check out their older material (I've in fact bought a few songs from their last album, Bulletproof, and I'm digging that also). If last year I introduced you to The Cocktail Slippers and you liked them, this might be my one big new favorite thing this year. Check them out, you might dig it too.