Bodie Powell Turn Up the Jukebox TexWestern Records by David Pilot
	As an unpaid highly-medicated pseudo-critic of Texas and Americana music, I felt pretty sure I had at least a decent handle on the basic who's who in the genre. This current resurgence in Texas Music pulls in people from across the nation (Mark Zeus, for example, tearing up Houston now instead of playing coffeehouses in Chicago) and from a multitude of musical stewpots, so nobody's ever truly certain who's playing for whom based on what. But, overall, I felt I had a grasp. Which begs the question, Why the HELL hadn't I heard Bodie Powell before Turn Up the Jukebox arrived in the mail a week and a half ago? And if you haven't, why are you as stupid as me? My first rule of thumb when reviewing something from an artist I haven't heard is to check 'em out, get a feel for where they're coming from. In this case that included two things: an email to Bodie and a visit to www.bodiepowell.com. Bodie's response to the email was as simple as your basic Texas "Howdy. Glad ya like what ya hear. Take care." The website was a bit more forthcoming. For starters, I learned that Bodie was born and bred in Nashville, then left to come to Texas. That's a trend I'd like to see more of, personally. Then I learned that Bodie grew up playing in the yard with the neighbor kids, just like you and I, except that his neighbors' daddy was some guy named Red Sovine. Then he sailed outta high school with a bass on his back to start touring with no-name acts like Dave Dudley, Roy Rogers and Wanda Jackson. Several of those tours wound through Texas, and Bodie found there a place to call home and woman to share it with. Walked out on the Nashville stars to go Texas. There were a coupla trips back to Tennessee over the years, and a stint working with Johnny Cash, but eventually Bodie found his way back to Fort Worth and headlined the house band at Billy Bob's for several years. Nowadays he's easy to find at the other watering holes in the Stockyards, writing and playing his own brand of country music, and major label success be damned. Bodie Powell is not the second coming of the alt-rock y'allternative brand of Texas music most of us think of today. He IS, though, a pure country singer of the highest order. When I listen to Turn Up the Jukebox, I hear people like Keith Whitley, George Strait, Marty Robbins and Chris Wall. I hear Roy Rogers' purity and Red Sovine's storytelling. And after a listen or two I realize what I really hear is Bodie Powell, and that seven or eight hundred million other people need to hear him too. He's that good, y'all. Eleven tracks make up this CD, eight of them co-written by Bodie and wife Donna. The disc kicks off with a Billy Herzig/Craig Webb cut that the album takes its name from, "Turn Up the Jukebox." A lazy Fort Worth Friday evening begins to unwind with the first notes, and before long Ralph Mooney's steel guitar work is making things work far more powerfully than Slash's amped-up axe ever dreamed of. A pure dee Texas song, this one, full of jukeboxes and beer, women and pain, and a tantalizing touch of good ole Western swing. "Dog House," track number two, is a perfect followup, picking up around 10pm where track number one leaves off. The man's in the moon And the cat's in the cradle And I'm in the doghouse, Never woulda happened If my best friend didn't have such a big mouth. . . Pure two-steppin' music cut from workaday fabric and laced with stories more real than the damn postman who delivered the divorce notice. Country music like it ought to be, frankly. The first Powell-penned cut is number three, "Me Too." This is Texas Hill Country stuff circa 1985, when George Strait's Ace In the Hole band was the brightest star in the Gruene Hall upcoming schedule. A Dean Dillon song penned by Bodie Powell, and quite possibly done a favor by the change. Then it's off to the rocking "Beer Bottle Mountain," part Tom T. Hall and part Brian Burns singing "I'm Not a Wino." It's a heads-on look at a beer-hall life and the price that life always carries. Which choice will the singer make? Listen and learn. "Only The Shadows Know" touches sentiments you know from Keith Whitley and T. Graham Brown, revisited in a Bodie Powell kind of way that works on any radio station. Then it's off to "Two Rockin' Chairs," maybe the strongest cut here other than the title track. No surprise, Bodie and Donna wrote this one as well. To me it still seems like yesterday When I learned to love, This was the way A full life remembered with a partner in that other rocking chair on the porch. A family history in two old pieces of wood. This is a beautiful song. The next five cuts fall into the same veins first mined above. Family, home, beer, girl, truck, chair, kids, jail. All expertly played and delivered in one of the smoothest baritones you'll ever hear. Bodie Powell is exactly what Garth Brooks should have been, what ol' flat hat started out to be. Difference is, Garth went to Nashville, right about the time Bodie was leaving on a fast train. That's the simple essence of Bodie Powell and his music. Listen to him and you'll hear a lot of old friends, yes. But you'll also find a new one to take on the musical journey through the life you're pluggin' through every day. Bodie Powell and partner Donna are a pure country couple you can't afford to miss. Find out more, including details on a new CD, at www.bodiepowell.com. You can contact David Pilot at: tailgunner-at-rockzilla.net

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