Growl

I was not that familiar with RWH when I saw the recommendation from Amazon. I had heard some of his songs when I lived in Texas the first time in the late 1970s and "Redneck Mother" was an anthem from that time frame. He was part of the country and western outlaw bunch that included Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Tom Paul Glaser, Jerry Jeff, and Guy Clark.I bought Growl and really did not know what to expect. After listening to it two or three times, it is starting to grow or growl on me and I am liking it. His monotone voice is slightly off pitch and it sounds like he has a mouth full of swollen tongue, but RWH is the closest thing to the male version of Lucinda Williams. And I love Lucinda Williams music. Or maybe she is the female version of RWH?The guitar work on the album is excellent, mixing in the right amounts of beer bottle slide, acoustic, electric, lap steel, and resonator slide.I would recommend Growl for those who like blues versus those who like country. In my opinion, it is somewhere between country and blues with a little bit of honky tonk thrown in for good measure. Perhaps it is country blues?I will definitely add at least one more album from RWH to my collection.

Ray Wylie Hubbard's songs are as full or memorable couplets and quotable lines as any songwriter I've ever heard.I heard him for the first time at the 2006 Kerrville Folk Festival. (I was a first-time attendee.) I hadn't seen his name on the program or calendar of events and had no idea who he was or what he was about. I gathered that he is regarded as a legend by some, but nobody that I polled knew anything about him. His performance was the best of the festival (in the time that I was there), and I resolved to pick up a some of his music upon my return to Pittsburgh.I buy a lot of music based on an artist's connection to the work of artists I already admire. I'm often disappointed. There's an awful lot of poseurs running around who heard "Folsom Prison Blues" when they were kids and were taken with the image of shooting a man just to watch him die but who wouldn't have it in them to raise their voices to their own mothers--people singing about trains who've never jumped a train, spewing hyperbole about desire and heartbreak without ever having really experienced desperation.I don't know the man, Ray Wylie Hubbard. Maybe he's just an extremely talented writer capable of creating the illusion that he speaks from experience. But he's made a believer out of me. I suspect that I'll end up buying everything he's ever recorded, enjoying most of it and appreciating all of it.

I'm by no means an RWH 'scholar', but to my mind Growl represents Ray hitting his sweet spot! Great tunes like "The Knives of Spain", "Stolen Horse", and the well-nigh essential, "Screewww Yoooo!, We're From Texas!"

good cd

Never heard of this guy before - my 22 year old turned me on - CANNOT GET ENOUGH. If you like good stories, bar room tunes and a life lived through music - GET THIS and his others. I have 3 so far.

Great album.

I've known Ray for many years. He is Top Shelf when it comes to Real Americana or as I say Just Damn Real Great Music....

Great music