Hightone
1988
Brand New
About This Album
After a six-year break, Gary Stewart returned to recording for the Hightone label in Oakland, CA. Other than rocking a bit harder -- courtesy of guitar players Dale Sellers on lead and Allman Brother Warren Haynes on slide -- Stewart is not a shadow of his former self, but himself, period: namely, a bad-assed honky tonk singer/songwriter who delivers drinking songs better than anyone except Merle Haggard. And like the days of yore when albums like Out of Hand, Your Place or Mine, and Gary were released on RCA, Brand New is a collection of bar-slammin' good-time rowdy honky tonk songs and broken, screwed-up love songs seen from the bottom of a glass. "Brand New Whiskey" feels like a Stewart rewrite of Guy Clark's "Take Me to a Barroom," and is every bit as good; "I Owe It All to My Heart" is a sad country song in the best sense of the word. "Lucretia" is a rocker with echoes of Derek & the Dominos' "Layla," done pub-style. Haynes is especially effective with his deliberate guitar histrionics. "Rainin' Rainin' Rainin'" is classic Gary Stewart, high, lonesome, the morning after, and recounting the tragedy to whoever will listen accompanied by a barroom piano and cut-time rhythm.
Track List

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