CD Review — Wade Bowen, self-titled

Mary Jane Farmer | January 6, 2015 | Reply

First printed in Buddy Magazine, January 2015 issue

Wade Bowen, Wade Bowen, Independent release

Real and romantic, Wade Bowen’s latest, self-titled, 12-song CD is as savvy as it is self-assured. It’s this recognized country artist’s 7^th release in his 14 years of fronting his own band. And, definitely, his masterpiece — so far.

Although Bowen is a songwriter of strength in his own right, as experience has proven, he collaborated with others on many of these songs and included a couple on which he didn’t pen a period.

While Bowen’s duet with Guy Clark, “To Live Is To Fly,” on his previous album “The Given” will always fit him like a crown, the co-written “West Texas Rain” on Wade Bowen sparkles as the jewels in that crown. Bowen said in a previous interview with Buddy Magazine that he was working with several folks in Nashville on this project. One of those was songwriter Travis Meadows, who has contributed hits for national artists Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others. Meadows said he has been a Wade Bowen fan for some time, and when he got the invitation to co-write with Wade, it was a certainty he would say ‘yes.’ “We tossed ‘West Texas Rain’ around for a while. In fact, it was a totally different song at first, before we got on the right path. But we finally got going in the right direction, then we just let it become what it was trying to be.”

A highly individual song, “West Texas Rain” could easily have been adapted from a 12-stepper’s personal inventory. “I’ve been a… strain on my mama’s heart… a drunk… a dreamer… a preacher… a sinner. I’ve got secrets and stories, old shoebox memories…” It also has vocals added by Vince Gill.

Bowen, with or without co-writing, has a gift for imagery. “Welcome Mat” compares the ways of a broken heart to the dirt left on that 2×3 foot rough rug outside the door. “I laid my life down just to have your love, but you just wiped your feet and left me in the dust… you were walking all over me.” And on “Long Enough To Be A Memory,” the country crooner lays out lonely, “I’m just a stranger in a strange town. Where the stars are the same and the sun beats down. It was kind enough to give me all I need, and I just hope I stay long enough to be a memory.”

And, in keeping with Bowen’s constant touring work ethic, he cut “Honky Tonk Road,” with other road warriors Cody Canada, Randy Rogers, and Sean McConnell adding their vocals into the mix.

Meadows, himself a songwriter award-winner, said, “Wade is a great writer and a trust artist.”

Wade Bowen will be at the multi-artist, multi-venue The Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colo., in early January. His non-traveling Texas fans will be treated to shows in mid-January, and to keep up with his tour, go online to WadeBowen.com

— Mary Jane Farmer, Scene In Town