Consumer Guide Album

Gary Stewart: Brand New [HighTone, 1988]
Hard living deepens great voices, but it's hell on the smaller ones, and so naturally Stewart compensates by oversinging, burying the songs in a mannered misery and wild-ass desperation that for all you can tell he may actually be feeling. Wordplay's half there at best: "I was born the life of the party/And honey I'm dyin' tryin' to get one started," which is terrific, is preceded by "I was born the son of a honky tonk woman/My daddy was a natural-born gamblin' man," which is terrible. And which provides the song's title. B