On his third studio album,
If We Ever Make It Home, Texas singer/songwriter
Wade Bowen takes a giant leap forward.
Bowen's 2006
Lost Hotel album revealed a raw talent that had yet to be completely fleshed out.
Bowen was quick to stake his claim in the Americana market, but it was obvious he had a ways to go to match the music of his heroes, Texas singer/songwriters like
Guy Clark and
Robert Earl Keen. On
If We Ever Make It Home, the Lone Star troubadour proves himself a challenger for the Red Dirt Music throne. Songs like the sensitive "Turn on the Lights," a touching number that finds the singer struggling to pick up the broken pieces of a relationship he's not quite ready to let die, and the lump-in-the-throat "Daddy and the Devil," a bleak track about the fine line we sometimes walk between heaven and hell, hit the emotion button hard. Americana constant
Chris Knight adds his crushed-glass vocals to the latter.
Bowen treads the same musical territory as fellow Texans
Randy Rogers and
Kevin Fowler throughout the disc, especially on the fervent "Trouble."
Bowen delivers a dusty-throated vocal that his backing band smothers in a jangly, guitar-heavy sauce. In three albums
Bowen has gone from up-and-comer to contender. ~ Todd Sterling