Search - Jack Hardy :: Bandolier

Bandolier : Jack Hardy comes home

12/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For this impressive new release, legendary songwriter Jack Hardy trades in his Irish poet's hat for a Stetson. He is right at home with the western idiom--it is where he began his career decades ago, writing cowboy ballads. To Hardy, the Old West is a gold mine for imagery. Here are songs full of rifles, poker, drink, danger, horses of one sort or another, sly humor, love, loss, and moving on. It's a man's world, where the women are allied with nature and mostly dancing just out of reach.In the vividly drawn title song, history wears a human face above an ammunition belt and a dirty serape. In another number, 4 brothers contend for a woman. Nobody wins exactly, but it makes one heck of a story. With his fine, weathered voice, Hardy travels the highs and lows of a rugged inward terrain. Set to a breezy melody, some wordplay about the full moon turns into a metaphor for emotional abandonment. Images of the frontier in winter suggest a spare and lonely life, into which comes redemptive love. The rodeo signifies a lifetime's worth of amorous pursuit. The antics of a tiny, fierce kitten rescue a heart that's in free fall. Two exuberant songs about the Kerrville Folk Festival capture all the joy of making music with friends (and also the schmoozing, the silliness, and the falling in love that happens). Though it has some melancholy moments, this is a happy recording.Hardy and his sidepersons do some delicious guitar work, upright bass, fiddle, mandolin and dobro for the twang. Singer Lucinda Williams once said, "Jack Hardy has written some of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard." From this recording, add to the list: Ponderosa, Texas Moon, Andale. Other tunes are just deep-down satisfying, like Kitty in the Shoeshine Box (try to listen to it and keep still--I bet you can't.)To note all the worthy songs on this album, I would go on too long. But I must add this. Faded Old Rose is Hardy's current rendition of a western-style song he wrote at age seventeen. Though the melody just ambles and the lyrics are tentative, it shows lots of promise. In the transition to the next song, which is the soaring, confident Texas Moon, there's a moment of magic as the full sweep of Hardy's career comes into focus. It's just one of the reasons to treasure this album. (Did I mention the blue margaritas?)"