CD review: The Jack Grace Band - The Martini CowboyThey’ve been sort of the opening act du jour on thecountry circuit, opening for Merle and Willie Nelsonand Jerry Lee, et al.. If this is an attempt to get somenotice from the retro country crowd, it ought to work.Hell, this ought to get them on the Grand Old Opry, ifthey don’t mind songs about coc*ine at the RymanAuditorium The Jack Grace Band’s last album I Like It Wrong putin some serious overtime on some of the betterjukeboxes across the counry. In fact, you could saythat it was the party album of the summer of 2004,Suffused in booze and tested live on crowds of drunksin dives all over town, those songs were every smartparty animal’s alternative to Jimmy Buffett. It maytherefore come as some surprise that the new album bythe Jack Grace Band is an attempt to - gasp - make aserious record. I say record because the cd is dividedinto a distinct side 1 and side 2. A concept album, noless, complete with little instrumental fragmentsseparating the songs, and something of a central,unifying theme. The most surprising thing about it isthat it actually works. Tight, focused, thoughtfullyconceived, in other words, everything Grace’s previouswork was NOT. Which ironically was always his savinggrace - the band may have been a little loose, thewhiskey may have run rivers but you always knew thatif you went to see these guys live you would have agood time. While it doesn’t look like anybody left thebar for very long to make this album, it’s a hundredeighty degrees from what you might expect afterhearing the last one. Is it possible that Grace hasactually matured? The Martini Cowboy is packed with haunting, gorgeouslyold–fashioned, 1960s style country songs with tastefulelectric guitar, soaring pedal steel, piano and arhythm section that swings like the dickens. You candance to this stuff more than you can Grace’s olderstuff. Because ultimately that’s why honkytonks exist:where else can you squeeze your cheatin’ lover againstthe jukebox and sway to the strains of Merle Haggard?Who happens to be exactly who the first song, thealbum’s title track, evokes. Straight up. When he’s ontop of his game Jack Grace’s songs sound like countryclassics from 40 or 50 years ago. The cd’s second songBroken Man continues in a purist vein, driven by JonDryden’s beautiful, incisively minimal honkytonk piano“I’m not gonna go out there tonight,” swears theMartini Cowboy. He’s been burned too many times. Whichleads perfectly into the next song, Cry, a sexy bossabeat and groovalicious bass player Daria Grace’sbop-bop backing vocals only momentarily distractingfrom its eerie minor-key drive and bitter lyrics. Whenafter a surprisingly jaunty, jazzy guitar solo thething stumbles out of its groove and literally fallsapart, the effect is nothing short of heartbreaking. The album’s next track Trying to Get Away from Nothingat All zooms in on our protagonist trying to pullhimself away from the brink. It’s a showcase forGrace’s voice, a big, Johnny Cash style baritone thatcan handle the over-the-top whiskey-drinking anthemsand the dark, disturbing ballads with equal aplomb.After that song, we get Sugarbear, another minor-keyWaits-esque number with ambient steel guitar, andRotary Phone, arguably the album’s best song , ahaunting, skeletal minor-key blues: “Let me tell astory about the way it used to be/With a rotary phonedon’t leave a message for me/You’re gonna be an oldman too…” The last song of the “A side”, What I Drink and Who IMeet at the Track (Is My Business) is completelyself-explanatory - it’s one of those songs thatsomeone should have written long ago, and that it tookthis long before someone did is a mystery. It’s a goodthing that it was this guy who wrote it and not NeilSedaka. I mean, can you imagine Neil Sedaka at thetrack? No, you can’t. He’d get killed before he got tothe stands. The “B side” begins with Uncle Luther. By now, theMartini Cowboy has fallen in love. His Uncle Luther ismoving back to the shack he hasn’t lived in for tenyears and the Martini Cowboy has to get out. Butthat’s not what’s bugging him. It’s that he can’t stopthinking about her. Yeah, her, and it scares the hellout of him. The following tune, Verge of Happiness isso George Jones it’s not funny, in fact it’s scary,right down to the vocals. Nobody ever did desperate,lost love songs better than Jones, anyway, so it makessense. Happy in the Fall continues in the No ShowJones vein “I’m happy in the fall, but I don’t likethe landing,” Grace muses ruefully as the band swingsbehind him. The album’s climactic track, Something toLook Forward To - where the guy finally gets the girl- is a bit of a letdown. Like at the end of Siddharthawhen the guy finally gets to India and all he findsis…OMMMMM (hey, this is a serious album, I’mtrying to be serious about this).The cd concludes with areal old-timey number called Spike Down, which soundslike an electrified version of some obscure 19thcentury folk blues. There’s not a weak song on this album - which is moreimpressive than you think. Hell, even Sergeant Pepperhad that stupid, phony raga tune that Harrison sang.And Merle Haggard’s greatest hits albums all seem tohave those horrid pro-Vietnam War ditties he wrotebefore he woke up and smelled the coffee. So theMartini Cowboy’s in pretty good company. If thisdoesn’t get him the big record deal (memo to the band- WATCH YOUR BACK), Jack Grace can always fall back onhis side project Van Hayride, which plays countrycovers of Van Halen songs. I’m not making this up. Nota word.