Excellent country music for Haggard and Strait fans
J. McIllece | 12/28/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Back in the early eighties, Dean Dillon hooked up musically with country music veteran Gary Stewart ("She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles") and released a couple of albums (like "Brotherly Love") whose home territory lay somewhere between Merle Haggard's "Back to the Barrooms" album and more commercial country fare of the era. (George Strait recorded a couple of tunes penned by Dillon and had hits with them.) Nowadays Dean Dillon still sports a smooth, silky voice, and on this CD he still has a few honky tonks to visit, but you get the feeling Dillon is bar-hopping to find a lost love rather than to party until he drops. This CD is really excellent, with a strong Stratocaster/Telecaster based sound that keeps some edge on while he moves from honky tonk to romance and back again. There are a few really nice love songs, most notably "Heart On the Line" and "When Hell Freezes Over," and the country blues of "Everybody Knows," which does a nice job of combining a drinking tune with a love song. I don't know if Dean Dillon "deserves" more popularity or fame than he has achieved -- he doesn't chart any new territory, really -- but I do know that I have liked every album or CD he has put out, and if you like the other artists I mention here, you will probably like him a lot, too."