Search - Jack Ingram :: Lonesome Questions

Asking the Right (Lonesome) Question

Jack Williams | Atlanta, Georgia, United States | 04/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A solid record that slips through the cracks, maybe because some of the material appears again in his other recordings. Still, Jack Ingram's music's meant for driving, and this easily overlooked record lends itself to just that. Give it a closer listen, and you'll discover how the theme of restlessness sits behind most of Ingram's work. His characters are always on the move, driving through one light towns, looking for work, searching. Life's mostly attitude and driving, he writes, and this record shows he believes it. The same guy who named his band after a beat-up Ford has the good sense to cover Jerry Jeff Walker's "My Old Man," and I believe this is one of Ingram's very finest songs and it's easily this record's highlight. When he sings, "My old man, had a rambling soul," you'll hear Jack Ingram at his best. Almost conversational, instrumentation subdued, something much like old Merle Haggard but still remarkably good on its own. Listening to this record on 441 through south Georgia, heading north through Fargo and Homerville and Douglas and Dublin, the miles and minutes flew past."