Search - Jack Grace Band :: I Like It Wrong

The record opens with the buoyant title tune, offering some jaunty organ input from Nate Shaw. "I Like It Wrong" boldly proclaims the gospel according to Jack Grace, "Well you gave me a job, but I don?t want to be here no more/They tell me that I need the money, but I really don?t mind being poor/I like it wrong/It?s so easy to do/Just hunkerin? down and feelin ? blue/I like it wrong." Drew Glackin shines on "When I Drink Whiskey", his lap steel creating an otherworldly tone quite alien to the country genre. Jack, on banjo, sounds like he's in trouble ("Tryin' to hide from danger /I know it's a trap/Just when I run from cover/I just fall in its lap") but wins in the end: "When I drink whiskey / I think about / All the people and things that make me happy". Breathtaking musical synergy is evidenced on "Hopin? for Some Good". Dan Hovey?s organic guitar lines catapult country into a new dimension while Jack and Daria?s seamless harmonies soar over knowing words of wisdom, "Sometimes you have to suffer/And it goes a little long/But at least you get to feel somethin' true/When comfort starts to sour ain't no comfort at all/It just leaves you broke down and confused". The upbeat "The Grass Is Always Greener (But I Can't Remember Just Which Grass is Mine)" marks a change in tone, where we find our hero heading for his favorite saloon. Jack returns to the banjo for "Umbrella" which features excellent lap steel wizardry from Glackin and an eerie, carnival-gone-wrong feel from organ maestro Shaw. The tune finds Jack admonishing his listeners, "Don?t take my advice/Take my umbrella/To save you from the rain". The rollicking "Ice Cold Beer" beings us back to the present and is guaranteed to entice even the most temperate of citizens in dry counties across the Bible Belt. "7:30 in the Afternoon" continues the theme of potent potables in a celebratory mood followed by a mid-tempo, classic-country showpiece, "This Hangover Ain?t Mine". "Hangover" documents a post-breakup malaise that leads our hero astray. "I lost my job, my youthful smile/and my dreams went almost blind/Got a lot of things that I?ve done wrong, but this hangover ain?t mine." The autobiographical gem, "Old Hotel" heralds the return of banjos and foreboding, telling of Picasso's hair troubles during the German occupation, martinis on Haight Street and an Italian with a banjo in a tree. The ballad "It?s Not a Crime" is a bittersweet affirmation of the bonds of love, "Love and sin and compromise/And when I look into your eyes/I feel so whole/There ain't no way to ever feel no pain/But I'll do my best to try to keep it away/'Cause I love you more than trouble loves a game". The album?s closer "Colder Than Cold" tells the tale of a lonely young man with his .22 lamenting the departure of his high school sweetheart for collegiate life and features a beautiful piano solo by Neil Thomas.