Brennen Leigh – Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet
Brennen Leigh’s latest album Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet (released on June 16) was produced by Chris Scruggs, and is a solid foray through the best, most simple and truest country songwriting in the history of country songwriting.
The opening song sets your expectations gloriously high with “Running Out of Hope, Arkansas” with joyful honky tonk heights and the continual play on words in lines like “I wanna hug my ma and pa as I’m running out of Hope, Arkansas.”
“Somebody’s Drinking About You” is a more driving pace, and again with a sentiment we can all relate to but turned in a way we haven’t quite thought of before. As we lick our own wounds, isn’t somebody else drinking about us, licking their own?
“The Red Flags You Were Waving” is a great tongue-in-cheek while still brutally honest song about charging straight toward exactly the wrong thing, fueled by desire: “like a moth to flame, I set my aim on the red flags you were flying.”
“Carole With An E,” a co-write with Mallory Eagle, is a quirky character study of someone we all know, at least in passing. Literally. “She’s doing her thing in the left hand lane.”
“Mississippi Rendezvous” is up near the peak of the album. This co-write with Mary Bragg and is gentle, pretty, and full of sweet pain.
“The Bar Should Say Thanks” starts with “when they threw me out I heard the slamming of familiar swinging doors” and we are swimming in the alcoholic haze so familiar weaving through the music scene. “The bar should say thanks for all the good times I brought with me, even when my mind was a total blank, I was the life of the party….”
The album is vintage country with the simple and direct, raw, honest emotions of the classic country era captured all throughout.
It was engineered by Dan Knobler with additional recording by Rob Price, and mastered by Alex McCollough.
Musicians on the album are Marty Stuart on mandolin, Chris Scruggs on electric and acoustic guitars; Aaron Till on fiddle and acoustic guitar; Tommy Hannum on pedal steel and dobro; Micah Hulscher on piano; Alec Newman on upright bass; Nate Felty on drums and Rodney Crowell, Vickie Vaughn, Larry Marrs, Katie Marrs and Chris Scroggs on background vocals. On “Carole with an E,” Mallory Eagle performed the CD talk radio.
Find tour dates and more information here: https://www.brennenleigh.net/home-tour
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Key to the Highway: Brennen Leigh