If you were looking for a formula for making an independent label album commercially successful, you'd be hard put to find a better one than Radney Foster has come up with on his latest release, "Are You Ready for the Big Show?"

1. Take a good ole Texas boy who has been fighting the songwriting wars up in Viet Nashville for years without ever having made it fully into the commercial Top 40 country mainstream and being labeled a "sellout."

2. Put a never-miss-a-lick band made up of some of the best pickers Viet Nashville has for hire behind him.

3. Have him perform a collection of his most recognized songs of the past decade, plus a few new standouts.

4. Record the whole thing live deep in the heart of Texas at Austin's Continental Club where there is one of the most artist friendly environments and musically knowledgeable crowds on the planet.

5. Just to make sure you hit the nail squarely on the head, add a hidden studio track of an old Foster and Lloyd song called 'Texas in 1880' and record it with one of the phenoms of the neo-Cosmic-Cowboy Texas fad.

Do all of the above and you certainly have a better than average chance of commercial success in today's chaotic music bazaar. And that is exactly what Radney Foster has done. Smart move, Mr. Foster.

There has never been much doubt that Radney Foster is one sharp cookie. He has managed to rub shoulders with the Nashvegas machine without becoming identified with its mainstream element (the kiss of death for an Americana artist), having, like John Hiatt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kim Richey and others, been able to maintain an image of an Americana recording artist while living in the belly of the beast. With his first effort on his new PureSpunk label, Foster shows that this isn't his first rodeo in the commercial music arena, as "Are You Ready for the Big Show?" follows an almost perfect formula for an Americana release to do well commercially in the current music industry milieu by appealing to the audience that describes itself as "Americana" or "independent" but also attaching itself easily to the growing "Texas music" audience. And "Are You Ready for the Big Show?" won't scare many fans of mainstream country away either. Bingo, let the cash registers ring.

But marketing strategy will only lift a record so far. Fear not. Foster has put the sound in the grooves to satisfy buyers once they've plunked their money on the counter and ripped off the cellophane. This record has wings and it can fly.

Even though he is backed by a group of veteran Nashville cats, from the opening strains of 'Tonight' the band hits a Texas vibe and never lets it go. With players like Mike McAdam (Steve Earle, Greg Trooper) on electric/slide guitar, young mandolin whiz Chris Thile (Nickel Creek), bassist Byron House, drummer Matt Thompson (Thompson Brothers Band), organist Jeff Armstrong, and backup vocalist Ashley Arrison, the music moves seamlessly from country to roots rock to the edges of pop without any conscious distraction or sense of showing off. Foster has had the good sense to include his biggest hits ­ "God Knows When," "Just Call Me Lonesome," "Nobody Wins," and "I'm In," but doesn't copy cat them in a "just like the record" mode.

Foster has also included a few new songs and they measure up lyrically to his earlier hits. "Leaning On What Love Can Do" is a fine example of a love song with the strong hooks that have always been a mark of Foster's songwriting. These lyrics definitely have the qualities that could make a mainstream country radio hit given the full Nashville studio treatment. But in Foster's capable hands, the song comes across with a deep-seated sincerity without the sugary vocal histrionics a full-blown Nashville production would inevitably require.

So much hurt, so much arched-back defiance
It's gonna break something soon
No one loves the way you love
But love could suffocate from the weight that's bearing down on us

"How You Play The Hand," which Foster dedicated to his parents who were in the audience, like many of Foster's more emotional songs goes straight to core of the matter with a perfect analogy.

I know that it's true, sometimes life's hard
It's touch or it's go at the turn of a card
Somehow love survives the only way it can
It's not the cards you're dealt
It's how you play the hand

But perhaps the real sleeper cut on this album is 'School of Hard Knocks,' which has some wonderfully clever lyrics.

Well, the last one hurt like hell, knocked the wind right outta my sails,
And I'll heal up someday but it's gonna leave a beauty of a scar
I think I'm gonna get drunk, pull the tire iron outta my trunk
Bang up all my fenders just so they can match my heart

I'm trying to get myself an education
Cry one tear towards graduation
Every Sunday punch I've thrown has come back around to clean my clock
The bell is ringin', down at the school of hard knocks

'Tonight,' which as the opening track sets the tone for the record by coming out of the chute bucking, is a fine roots rocker that incorporates all the elements that have made Foster a success: great lyrics, plenty of beat, and his clear, direct voice.

Linda's talking about quitting her job and running off to Mexico
She's just bluffing but another margarita, who knows, we both might go
Some of her insanity is starting to rub off on me
Any dream we can dream up she says might come true

While Foster certainly shines on heartfelt, tender ballads, where he really excels on this album is on the hits that he has slightly rearranged for live presentation, giving them more punch and power than the studio versions. On "Folding Money," McAdam cuts loose with his slide guitar far beyond the parameters of the original studio recording. He obviously knows he's in Austin in front of a guitar-appreciative crowd and Foster lets McAdam have plenty of space to demonstrate his ability. Foster's band gets plumb funky and Arrison lends some distinctive bad-girl backup singing. This cut has a big-city edge that the studio version lacks. Foster has also added some beat, some Cajun swing and McAdam's virtuosity to 'Just Call Me Lonesome' that has infused a great honky-tonk feeling to the familiar song.

The album contains two hidden bonus tracks, a studio version of 'Tonight' and the old Foster and Lloyd song, 'Texas In 1880' which was released to radio as a single and immediately went to the top of the Texas music charts. While it is a fine song, there will certainly be those skeptics who will see a crass marketing tactic at work in the cameo appearance by Pat Green. Crass or not, it looks like it is working, even though the addition of Green brings little to the song other than added marketing power.

Radney Foster has certainly created a fine album for the debut of his new label. With its mix of greatest hits and quality new material recorded with a crack band live in one of Texas' most respected clubs, it certainly should get the new label off on a good foot both artistically and financially. And that is just the formula the new independent Americana labels, which are supposedly "artist friendly," need right now if they are to survive in the school of hard knocks.

* Like enhanced CD's with interactive features, videos, interviews and lots of additional artist information? This is the one for you. It includes a great acoustic version of Foster doing 'Nobody Wins.' www.radneyfoster.com or www.purespunk.com

Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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