Man With A Memory (Universal South, 2002)
Joe Nichols
Reviewed by Stuart Munro
The roots show in the classic honky-tonk sound of "Brokenheartsville" (a killer title for a killer song) and in "Cool To Be A Fool" and the jazzy "You Can't Break The Fall," both of which swing in a way that owes no small debt to George Strait. There's a couple of off-beat traditionalist nods, too: the Roger Miller ontology of "Everything's A Thing" (one of three songs on the album that Nichols had a hand in writing) and a dawg music cover of Tom T. Hall's "Life Don't Have to Mean Nothing' At All." And even the pop elements - the record's first single, "The Impossible," for example, and the beautiful ache of the title track - owe a lot more to the likes of Keith Whitley and Don Williams than to today's avatars.
The sum is indelibly country, and another bit of succour for those who entertain the hope that Nashville has returned to making records that do more than simply cater to the dictates of radio demographics.
CDs by Joe Nichols
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