Brooks & Dunn “Hillbilly Deluxe”

By Paul V. Griffith – The Associated Press

The press release for Brooks & Dunn’s latest recording, “Hillbilly Deluxe,” touts the pair as “four-time entertainers of the year and hardcore honky-tonk denizens.”

It’s hard to argue with the first half of that statement (there’s no accounting for taste), but the second half is asking for a fight. For starters, there’s nary a honky tonk on Brooks & Dunn’s tour schedule- denizens of arenas and amphitheaters is more like it.

Then there’s the fact that “Hillbilly Deluxe” contains not a single shuffle or waltz, two song forms that, from Bob Will’s “San Antonio Rose” to George Strait’s “You Look So Good in Love,” virtually define “honky tonk.”

Its not that every country album should swing, but you’d better count off a shuffle every now and then if you’re going to call yourself a honky tonker or a “hillbilly.” “Hillbilly Deluxe,” on the other hand, delivers nothing but trite ballads (“I May Never Get Over You”) and wannabe Southern rock (“Whiskey Do My Talking”).

Why suffer through that when there are real honky-tonkers out there who remain true to the roadhouse tradition and perform well-crafted songs that don’t merely pander to the lowest common denominator?

Eric Clapton “Back Home”

By Ryan Lenz – The Associated Press

Sure, legends die and stars inevitably begin to fade. If you’re Eric Clapton, though, you simply return home. So it is for the 60-year-old British bluesman’s aptly titled “Back Home,” which brings into sharp focus the reflections of a music man of four decades who has grown to value home and family above all else in the twilight of his years.

To make that point, the album’s opening track “So Tired” doesn’t chronicle the bone-deep fatigue a seemingly endless string of show nights would bring. Instead it’s an uplifting melody to accompany a parent’s lament on the daily grind of raising children. Babies and band practice? Has one of the most influential guitarists ever grown soft? The truth is that even the wildest grow timid with years.

And following his reunion last summer with his bandmates from Cream, that 1960’s psychedelic British powerhouse, Clapton has reason to step back and count the blessings his guitar has brought.

Stevie Wonder’s “I’m Going Left” and George Harrison’s “Love Comes to Everyone” bookend Clapton’s first original material in five years, even if the recordings sound closer to elevator ditties than soulful biographical ballads. Still, the three-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has earned time to ponder where his music has taken him.