I must admit, I’m a terrible speller. Thank God for Microsoft Word that can correct my bad spelling. The only sticking point is that you have to have the spelling close enough so that the computer can give you possible spellings. My problem, I’m such a bad speller that sometimes (and really more times than I’m willing to admit, but I guess I kinda just did admit it, so I suppose it isn’t really more times than I’m willing to admit, but I digress) Word can’t even give me possible spellings because it’s no where close to what the spelling should be. So, with all that being said, I can see why you, oh gracious and wonderful reader of my music reviews, would think that Word went to sleep when I typed in the title to this CD. But no, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. See, the deal is that “Alburquerk” is the way that many back in the old days (1930’s 1940’s around in that time) pronounced the largest city in the great state of New Mexico. And I can only guess that since much of the music on this CD sounds like it came straight out of that era, they decided to go old school on the name of the CD. But just so that the music listener knows that the Curio Cowboys actually know how to spell Albuquerque, they spell it out in the song Albuquerque and they even spell it backwards in Albuquerque polka. Coming from a bad speller, I was very impressed with the backwards spelling, that takes real talent.
Well, all spellings and misspellings aside, if you love the music of Bob Wills and really, Western Swing in general, this is the CD for you. It’s really great that there are still musicians keeping this great American music alive and kicking. And the Curio Cowboys don’t just play this type of music, the play it real well. This is the type of music that used to be played in the old dance halls, the music that gave people a reason to take a bath on Saturday night, the music that people danced to. And I’m not talking about that light in the loafers line dance, achy-breaky electric slide type of dancing, but real see how far you can spin your partner swing dancing. In fact, when listening to You Don’t Have to be a Baby to Cry, you could swear you were sitting in a dance hall. It just has that feel to it. And when they sing Pipeliner Blues, you would argue that Bob Wills himself is leading the band. That song also has one of my favorite lines from the CD
If you don’t like my peaches,
Don’t shake my tree.
New Panhandle Shuffle is a cool song that tries to mention every town in the Texas Panhandle. Gone might be my favorite song on here as well as Live & Let Live. But really, it’s hard to pick out a favorite because they are all such great songs if you like that type of music.
So what have we learned today:
- Western swing ain’t dead
- I’m nowhere near an ecks… exsell… excella… good speller.
- And Albuquerk is a great new CD with an old feel to it.
I’ll give this CD 5 out of 5 misspelled words.