Bo DePeña – Rather Move Up (Yellow DOG Studios)
There’s a moment at the start of Bo DePeña’s Rather Move Up that cuts through all the noise of modern country music like a clean blade: “Half of the mistakes I made stone cold sober.”
It’s the opening line of “Half of My Mistakes,” and if you’ve spent any time wrestling with your own history from a clearer vantage point, that line hits hard. It’s not just clever songwriting. That’s lived truth from someone who’s done the work. And it stays with you.
Out of Laredo he came, this Texas-born songwriter now calling the mountains of southwestern Colorado home. His first release in four years, Rather Move Up arrives like a weathered rider who’s seen enough trail to know what matters and what doesn’t. Recorded at San Marcos’ renowned Yellow DOG Studios with Casey Johns producing and Ethan Lugbauer engineering, the album pulls from a deep well of influences – Texas Tornadoes, Marty Robbins, Chris LeDoux, Colter Wall, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jerry Reed – and somehow makes it all his own.
“No Longer Lonesome,” co-written with Ellen Melissa Story and John M. Greenburg, brings that Tex-Mex energy with a Mavericks feel and Dwight Yoakam riff that’ll fill up any dance floor. Bukka Allen’s accordion work adds the perfect touch. You can practically see the boots moving and the smiles spreading. There’s even a zydeco feel that would make Clifton Chenier nod approval. It’s fun as hell.
Then “Old Bull Winter” pulls you back into traditional territory – outlaw country with some of the most Western lyrics on the record. The narrator’s a tough sonuvabitch, telling his story on the trail with a flask full of Old Crow. It reminds me of early Johnny Cash that way, that same weathered storytelling voice. DePeña’s original draws from Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, following an aging outdoorsman on a hunt who lets the animal go when he sees too much of himself in its eyes. It’s cinematic and contemplative, carried by soaring fiddle from Story and wistful dobro from former Silverada member Zachary Moulton that takes you deep into the Rocky Mountains he now calls home.
DePeña isn’t trying to be anyone but himself, and that authenticity runs through every track. Authenticity and absurdity. Check out “Sasquatch Hunter,” a Tim Hus cover that becomes a tongue-in-cheek Country Western shitkicker in DePeña’s hands. The narrator’s the real deal even if Bo’s clearly having fun. It’s as close to contemporary Rawhide as you’re likely to hear, hilarious and hokey – on purpose.
Then Bo turns around and guts you with “Wood and Nails,” a love song that cuts to the bone with pedal steel work from Moulton that damn near makes you believe in redemption. It’s soothing, when the lyrics are painful. What a great message, though, and a reminder we have to put the work in to make our relationships thrive: “It takes more than wood and nails to build a home.” This track captures the range and contrasts this album works with – from playful Western character study to unflinching emotional honesty, sometimes within the same song!
What ties Rather Move Up together is gratitude. Not the superficial kind you see on inspirational posters, but the hard-won variety that comes from looking at your life honestly and choosing to move forward. In the powerful title track, Bo sings that he’d “rather live life gratefully than regret what’s come and gone / I’d rather move up than move on.” There’s wisdom in that distinction. Moving on suggests leaving something behind. Moving up acknowledges where you’ve been while choosing something better. It’s the kind of perspective you earn, not stumble into.
This album features fewer originals than DePeña’s past releases, but the carefully chosen covers – opening track “Half of My Mistakes” written by Bobby Houck and Radney Foster, Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Pickup Truck Song,” Charlie Stout’s “I See Stars” (featuring Kevin Garinger’s harmonica), Christopher Seymore’s “King of Nothing,” – are songs he’s refined on the road, reimagined through his own experiences as a husband, father and performer. They hold deep personal significance, and you can hear it. Each one becomes his through the living of it.
The band assembled for these sessions – Ronny Allen on bass and vocals, Josh Rodgers on drums and percussion, Story on fiddle and vocals, and Moulton on pedal steel and dobro – creates a sound that’s both tight and lived-in, with Dave Percefull’s mastering bringing clarity to every weathered edge and honest moment.
DePeña has spent years cultivating a dedicated following across Texas and the Mountain West, playing bars and breweries, rodeos and honky-tonks, opening for artists like Radney Foster, Gary P. Nunn, William Clark Green, Chris Knight, Dale Watson, Ned LeDoux, and Colter Wall. He knows what works in front of a crowd, but more importantly, he knows what’s true.
Rather Move Up is out now on all streaming platforms for all to enjoy as both a statement and an invitation. It’s country music the old way and the new way, shifting from dance halls to the slow reckonings of a man alone with his guitar. It’s unapologetically Western yet tenderhearted when it needs to be. Rough yet ruggedly honest. Hard yet silly when the moment calls for it. It’s a damn good country record. For more information, go to https://bodepenamusic.com.
Highlights: “Wood and Nails,” “Rather Move Up,” “Sasquatch Hunter,” “No Longer Lonesome”