We’re All Gonna Live

Tony Kamel, former frontman and principal songwriter with the band Wood & Wire, is a talented present-day practitioner in the Guy Clark-Townes Van Zandt Texas singer-songwriter tradition.

Many of Kamel’s songs are topical – vivid character sketches, reflections on fatherhood, etc. – and are shot through with homespun philosophy. He’s a gifted lyricist, has an ear for intriguing melodies, and has an unpretentious baritone voice that puts the songs across with conversational immediacy.

This, his third solo album, opens with “Makin’ It Work,” a rousing, sing-along-friendly reflection on life’s balancing act with a jaunty fiddle-guitar break and an irrepressible sense of optimism.

“Damn Good Ride” and “Sue” are tributes to his grandmother and a dear departed friend, respectively, both of whom served as guideposts in his life. Both songs are celebrations of lives well lived.

The tongue-in-cheek title tune has a similarly affirmative tone, while “Lying Through My Teeth” is an empathetic portrait of a man brought down by his addiction.

In the delightfully tragi-comic “Little Bitty Town” (written by Danny Barnes) it’s a tumble-down, humdrum hometown that its narrator can’t seem to escape.

The only other cover is a souped-up and electrified rendition of the Bill Monroe instrumental “Old Dangerfield.” Like the rest of the album, it was recorded in “live-to-tape” analog in co-producer Bruce Robison’s Lockhart, Texas studio, and it has a refreshing minimalist feel and an outstanding arrangement.