On his eighth album, Texas frat party darling
Pat Green takes a giant step into the big time to detrimental effect.
Green may make a lot of his Texas raising and his Austin base -- as well as his record-setting Houston concerts -- but he sounds more like a Nash Vegas hack every day. "Wave on Wave," the title track and single, is proof in the pudding that
Green's rootsy, humble, humorous,
Robert Earl Keen-derived style has gone the way of a cool breeze in Austin in August. There is little to distinguish not only his sound but his lyrics from those being written by the Nash Vegas Top Ten club. Contrast
Green with songwriters such as
Troy Campbell,
Mary Gautheir, and
Billy Joe Shaver and the distinction becomes painful.
Green needs to go back to the woodshed and seek out that reckless country music muse that gave him the life he enjoys and beg its forgiveness before churning out anything else. ~ Thom Jurek