THE KARL SHIFLETT & BIG COUNTRY SHOW

THE KARL SHIFLETT & BIG COUNTRY SHOW
SHO NUFF COUNTRY

Patuxent Music
CD-279

In the liner notes to his new CD, Karl Shiflett humbly expresses his hope: “If our music makes you move a little, tap your foot or if it touches your heart, then all our efforts have not been in vain.” No worries, Karl, not in vain by a long shot!

This rousing, bighearted collection of country, honky-tonk, Western Swing, big band, and bluegrass oldies, delivered in a rollicking acoustic bluegrass style succeeds on all these aforementioned counts. This is the kind of album that will make you grin, tap your feet, and maybe even get up and dance a shuffle around your living room on the darkest and dreariest of winter nights.

Shiflett grew up in central Texas (Limestone County) and came of age in the Lone Star State’s vibrant musical hotbed, whose influences he soaked up avidly. This rousing 15-song collection is his tribute to those musical heroes of his childhood and the enduring appeal of their music.

Shiflett and his five musical sidekicks in Big Country Show masterfully recapture all the grittiness, swagger, wild Saturday-night celebration, and soulful Sunday morning sadness embodied in this eclectic batch of both well-known and not so well-known tunes originally written and/or popularized by Hank Williams (“My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It”), Hank Thompson (“Six Pack To Go”), Bob Wills (“Bring It On Down To My House”), George Jones (“Why Baby, Why”), Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe (“Bluegrass Stomp”), Don Gibson (“Oh Lonesome Me”), Carter Family, Freddie Hart, Bob Dylan, and quite a few others. (Patuxent Music, P.O. Box 572, Rockville, MD 20848, www.pxrec.com.)BA