The short and sweet bio of super compelling, wildly hilarious singer/songwriter Reagan Hudson informs us that he’s a cattle farmer in Western NC who’s paid his dues with many bluegrass, country and gospel bands in the area.
As we listen to all the colorful phrases, rhymes and humorous narratives at the heart of his whimsically titled new album House Arrest Ankle Bracelet, we can imagine a guy bursting at the seams with creativity, spouting his goofy, witty insightful stories all alone to entertain his indifferent cattle and maybe cracking his bandmates up backstage before playing normal music for bar patrons.
As we muse about what his life must be when he’s not sharing his colorful musical narratives, we’ll feel grateful that he found the time and opportunity to charm us – and tickle our funny bones – with zippy, playfully titled gems like the title track (which reassures us we can have kinky fun with those on probation) and the technically sad but amusingly told dysfunctional family saga “Mama’s Going to Rehab.”
Not sure why a guy based in Western North Carolina would warble on about getting home after serving time in an ohio correction facility (“Chillicothe Prison”), but it’s one of his most cleverly written tune and an excellent showcase for his fast paced electric picking. Ditto the final track “Padded Walls,” a twangy tale of being in solitary – literally or metaphorically depending on how we interpret the line “It’s all because you drove me crazy.”
Just when the title track makes us think Hudson is simply a clever social satirist (not that there’s any problem just being that), he shows that he’s a traditional country singer at heart with two engaging classic styled romantic laments, “Everyday” (“Don’t know why I feel so blue/Every day I think of you”) and the steel guitar fired ballad “Broken Pieces of My Heart,” which offers a glimpse of being inebriated after a breakup and includes the simple yet heartbreaking line, “Say you love me once again/And the world won’t have to end.”
The two spoken word tracks – the silly over the top commercial for “Dr. Feel-mores Super Sonic Tonic” and the furious accusatory sermon “The Evils of a Saturday Night” - either make perfect sense amidst the other songs or are strange distractions. That’s up to the listener to decide. But if Hudson wants everyone to take him seriously as a country singer/songwriter, those kinds of quirky fillers may have to go next time out.
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