The Spectacular Sadness of Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys

The Spectacular Sadness of Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys

ASIN: B00004XSOX

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Hailing from Kansas City but sounding more like mid-'60s Bakersfield, Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys in their second album conjure up music that fans of Junior Brown will instantly understand. Unlike vintage Bakersfield or revivalists working that side of the street, their sound has a distinct refinement and cohesion. Hobart puts on no airs vocally, and if he occasionally sounds too clean, he also avoids the dead end of evoking past legends. Tight writing is a constant and is as noticeable on a ballad like "I'll Forget Her or Die Crying" or "The One & Lonely You" as on a novelty like "Bridge Burners Union (Local 36)" or the tongue-in-cheek "'Til My Teardrops Turn to Gold." Few of Music Row's faux honky-tonker throwaways capture heartbreak better than "Barstow Barstool." Instrumentally, the Misery Boys personify austerity with their no-frills arrangements, such as the one that adds still greater depth to the late-night emptiness of "Let's Keep Lying Here." If simplicity is a virtue, Hobart and company have plenty going for them. --Rich Kienzle

Tracks:

Forever Always Ends
Here Comes Nothing
The One & Lonely You
Bridge Burners Union (Local 36)
I'm Not Drunk Enough
I'll Forget Her Or Die Crying
'Til My Teardrops Turn To Gold
Barstow Barstool
Its My Turn
Alone With You
Let's Keep Lying Here
I Never Believed You Anyway

Amazon.com

Hailing from Kansas City but sounding more like mid-'60s Bakersfield, Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys in their second album conjure up music that fans of Junior Brown will instantly understand. Unlike vintage Bakersfield or revivalists working that side of the street, their sound has a distinct refinement and cohesion. Hobart puts on no airs vocally, and if he occasionally sounds too clean, he also avoids the dead end of evoking past legends. Tight writing is a constant and is as noticeable on a ballad like "I'll Forget Her or Die Crying" or "The One & Lonely You" as on a novelty like "Bridge Burners Union (Local 36)" or the tongue-in-cheek "'Til My Teardrops Turn to Gold." Few of Music Row's faux honky-tonker throwaways capture heartbreak better than "Barstow Barstool." Instrumentally, the Misery Boys personify austerity with their no-frills arrangements, such as the one that adds still greater depth to the late-night emptiness of "Let's Keep Lying Here." If simplicity is a virtue, Hobart and company have plenty going for them. --Rich Kienzle

Customer Reviews:

Still one of the best country singers around.......2002-09-25

On his previous album, "Forever Always Ends," Hobart's wry, tounge-in-cheek overstatements of traditional country "hard luck" themes -- going to your ex-lover's wedding, etc. -- were handled about as skillfully as on Dwight Yoakam's "A Long Way Home," and with nearly as much musical panache. He doesn't disappoint on this follow-up, although he does come a bit closer to overplaying his hand lyrically; the balancing act is made more precarious by his embrace of Glen Campbell-derived folk-countrypolitan stylings, as opposed to the bottle-busting, galloping honkytonk of the last album. By slowing the music down, he gives the listener more time to weigh the relative merits of sincerity vs. wit in lyrics like "I'm Not Drunk Enough To Say I Love You" and "The One And Lonely You"... Plus, these Misery Boys take their picking and plunking very seriously, and just the sound of that fine pedal steel alone is worth the price of admission.

Sadly Spectacular.......2000-09-27

Rex Hobart has been well known around the country for several years, but especially here in his heartland of Kansas City. There's a good reason the seedy bars and the dives of our town have been such a good home to Rex and the Misery Boys--the twangy, lonesome sound burrows under your skin and into your soul, but at the same time strikes up a rhythm in the feet until the sawdust floor beats with the busking of everyone's boots. 'Barstow Barstool' speaks to the lover he flees and leaves behind; 'Here Comes Nothing' is a brisk, almost cheerful tale of the precise moment when unfaithfulness is born. 'Bridge Burner's Union (Local 36)' is just as sprightly as it is sad. Rex and the Misery Boys can combine that light bounce with the heavy drag at the heart., which is spectacular in a live show. This is, in short, an album not to be missed not only by the honky-tonk and country aficianado, but by anyone who has loved, and lost, and loved and lost again until the loving and the losing can no longer be told apart.

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