Watching Life Through A Windshield (Back Porch, 2000)

Bill & Bonnie Hearne have spent years working in the southwestern United States as more or less that region's version of Ian & Sylvia. Although this is only their second nationally distributed album, they have had a number of others. If you're familiar with their earlier work, you'll notice two big differences in the vocals on this album: a lot more Bill and a lot less Bonnie. She has only one lead and one duet vocal and is reduced most of the time to harmony vocals at most as well as playing piano.

With Bill's gruff voice dominating the album, it becomes more of an almost typically Texas singer-songwriter album. In this case, the songs were all written by others, and most are classics. (However, some do seem to be a stretch to the album's avowed theme of driving songs) From Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" to Delbert McClinton's "Victim of Life's Circumstances," you've got a bunch of great songs many of which have already been done rather definitively by someone else. While the album should be enjoyable for almost anyone, it will likely become more enjoyable the less familiar you are with earlier versions of these songs.