Kevin Fowler - How Country Are Ya?

[StevePulaski]

How Country Are Ya? (2013)
By: Kevin Fowler

Rating: ★★★

Texas-based, neo-honky-tonk artist Kevin Fowler stumbled upon my radar in 2012, when his most successful single "Pound Sign" gained moderate airplay on a select number of country stations. Because of this, and considering Fowler has been in the music business for over a decade, leads one to recognize that he is still a regional talent, who has been in and out of several studio doors before finally producing How Country Are Ya?, his sixth record, on his own label Kevin Fowler Records.

The album is fifteen tracks of breakneck, freewheeling country music that could acceptably be channeling the new era of outlaw country, which operates in the vein of country legends like Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and Hank Williams. Criticize Fowler for lack of originality all you want, but you can't say the man doesn't know how to exploit a particular sector of a genre and carry it out for fifteen tracks that, while not all winners, manage to bring their own little style to the table.

The titular track features Fowler's deeply-southern vocals asking his listeners the main question of the hour and quizzing them on whether or not they preach the country lifestyle or decorate themselves in it. The follow-up tune, "Guitars and Guns," provides for a splendid piece of cultural relativism as we learn and identify with where Fowler came from and what exactly he holds true to his heart. Other tracks provide for vocal and instrumental variety, like Fowler's track where he pleads for someone to give him a longneck in "Beer Me" along with the infectious, mariachi-band scored "Barracho Grande."

While the album opens with a weaker ensemble than many other albums of the same genre (songs like "Before Somebody Gets Hurt," "The Weekend," and "Panhandle Poorboy" provide for little other than a forgettable medley of uninspired country ballads), the album kicks it into high gear towards the tail-end, with the smash hit "Love Song," the hilarious "Whiskey and I," and the moderately-fast paced "Chicken Wing," which adds to the variety of sound Fowler clearly likes to experiment with.

If one can say anything about Fowler, it's that he has clearly identified himself as a beer-drinking, hardcore country/rock singer and carries that for an admittedly overstuffed but thoroughly pleasant fifteen track album. In addition, one can say that he recognizes that he circles the bases a bit too much and at least tries to adopt different sounds to fit his similar moods. The album even has a solid instrumental track by the name of "Monsturdonus" and looks to acknowledge the girls in his life with the song "The Girls I Go With." Fowler may have overly-familiar subject matter, but calling him a "one-trick pony" would be woefully inaccurate.

Recommend tracks (in order): "Barracho Grande," "Chicken Wing," "Beer Me," "Guitars and Guns," and "The Girls I Go With."