This duet haunts the American « charts » since 1999 with its Country Music mixed with Southern Rock. Its last opus just being released, we were entitled to expect good work and that's we get. Conscientious production, polished arrangements, impeccable sound. Yet, this album turned out unequal with its highlights, its highs but also its lows. Every now and then, the two singers seem to have their eye on the side of the current Lynyrd Skynyrd with « We were here » (a mid tempo tune with a chord chart that remains the Marshall Tucker Band's « Can’t you see ») and « In a small town » (a Southern ballad that talks about the youth spent in a small town, with a melodic slide). « Headlights » also hits in the register of the mid-tempo big American rock with a banjo as rhythmic line on the verses, a big guitar sound on the refrains and an aggressive axe intervention. After that, it becomes a bit more laboured. « Back on a dirt road », with its medium tempo and again in the current Lynyrd Skynyrd style, receives the additional help of Chris Robertson and Black Stone Cherry. But the tune is nothing to write home about and we regret the lack of a guitar solo. A lot of people for a poor result. We come back to a more sustained melodic line with « Two old friends », in the Country/Americana style, and its steel guitar break.Yet, a six-string solo would have been welcome. Congratulations for the melodic « Folks like us » (that wavers between the New Country and a Southern Rock in the Henry Paul style) and its guitar solo that gives the thrill. To my opinion, it's the best tune of the album. After this wonder, the two following tunes appear to be much more insipid. « Pain », a mid tempo rock ballad, is though provided with a nice guitar but « Hillbilly hippies » is only worth because of its aggressive solo. We come back to better intentions with « Better for it », a Southern Country ballad with a beautiful refrain and a steel guitar solo. The record ends with « That’s just living », to my opinion a dispensable tune because it uses the same recipes than « Better for it » but in a less lovely way. So we have an honest record but without any flash of genius, with few tempo variations and overall few guitar solos. The last album of the two stooges is quiet easy to listen to but certainly it's not the best.

Olivier Aubry

Translation : Y. Philippot-Degand