Rusty Wier - Black Hat Saloon / Stacked Deck (CD)

All Music Guide

Once more we have the sad case of an innovative, living American artist who has to have part of his catalog reissued on foreign soil. Westside, a British label, remastered, compiled, and did a stellar packaging job on two of guitarist and songwriter Rusty Wier's greatest -- and most obscure -- recordings. Wier, a three-decade fixture on the Austin, TX, music scene, was a key figure -- along with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kris Kristofferson, Tompall Glaser, and a few others -- in the "outlaw" movement of the 1970s. His biggest hit was actually recorded by Bonnie Raitt for the Urban Cowboy soundtrack ("Don't It Make You Wanna Dance"), and he has languished in obscurity since 1980. This pair of albums, dating from 1976 and 1977, respectively, represents Wier at his best. Though he has issued only nine albums in his career -- five between 1974-1977 -- his best work is timeless and revelatory in how it stands out from the work of ...his contemporaries. Black Hat Saloon is an album that is equal parts Nash Vegas and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours-era L.A. It is full of country, blues, and folk styles and is arranged in such a manner as to demand a slicker production. The songs stay rough and gritty, but the studio cats make it sound somehow more listenable to those who would normally be turned off by country music -- especially outlaw country. Highlights are the title track, the rocker "Tell Me Truly Julie," and "High Road-Low Road." Stacked Deck, in comparison, was recorded entirely in California, and is a funkier affair inspired by New Orleans music, with slick, rounded L.A. production techniques. This album's finest cuts include "Walkin' Through New Orleans," "Sundown Sally," "Good Good Lovin'," "Midnight Angel," "Burned," and "Don't Let Me Down Again." Stacked Deck moves, grooves, slips, slithers, and snakes its way through all ten tracks and leaves the listener wanting more. Thank goodness somebody had the good sense to pull these tapes off the dusty shelf and reissue them with all the care and concern they deserve. - Thom Jurek, All Music Guide Read more Less