Audio By Carbonatix
“Red dirt” and “Texas country” have long baffled me. Such overly vague terms are essentially useless in actually describing any sort of a sonic style. I haven’t a clue as to whether this is a good or bad thing, actually—the variety of styles associated with the aforementioned “genres” range from the honky-tonk styling of Aaron Watson to the bluesy Southern rock of Cross Canadian Ragweed. But if, indeed, the spice of the Texas country life is variety, then Whatever Lady?!, the recent release from Fort Worth’s Joey Green, should mix rather well into the insanely large concoction that ball cap-wearing frat boys from Stephenville to Lubbock guzzle on a nightly basis.
While Green oscillates from swampy blues and singer-songwriter balladry to poppy roots-rock—and even a country shuffle that features an arresting and lilting pedal steel—he does so in a fashion that sets him apart from many of the bland, robotic Randy Rogers clones that have descended upon the so-called red dirt world. While Green doesn’t possess the widest of vocal ranges, the slight imperfections in his otherwise warm and husky voice serve many of the songs’ understatedly sincere lyrics quite nicely.
More important, Green avoids veering off into slick and sappy terrain by simply listening to himself rather than to a worn-out copy of George’s Bar.
