How Country Are Ya?

Personnel: Kevin Fowler (vocals); David Grisson, Paul Eason (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Jondan McBride (acoustic guitar, mandolin); Davin James (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Tracy Martin, John Carroll (electric guitar); Arty Passes, Mike Johnson , Tommy Detamore (steel guitar); Jason Mowery (mandolin, fiddle); Jason McBride, Glen Duncan (fiddle); Michael Ramos (Hammond b-3 organ); Ken Tondre (drums); Cody Johnson, Amy Rankin, Wes Hightower (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Ken Tondre; James Hill .
Recording information: Spank Factory, Nashville, TN; The Compound Recording Studio, Austin, TX.
"It's COUNTRY that's rockin'. The kinda music makes you wanna crack a cold one...and put a good dip in." Those words are spoken on the "Intro" for How Country Are Ya?, the sixth album from Kevin Fowler, the Texas singer who made a specialty out of rocking hardcore country hard. His amplifiers are cranked and he drops references to Mötley Crüe, but Fowler is a dyed-in-the-wool Texas honky tonker, cranking out drinking songs and slower ones suited for inevitable hangovers. Fowler has two great gifts: first, he sounds like the guy you'd meet in your local bar, the kind who would coax a round or two out of your wallet; second, he has a gift for turning clichés into full-fledged songs. These two talents are intertwined, helping him feel like your favorite local singer, but Fowler always dodges the pedestrian thanks to his humor, eye for detail, and casual sense of adventure. He pretty much sticks to the straight and narrow here, blasting out an ode to "Guitars and Guns" and pleading that somebody "Beer Me," but he also effectively conjures mariachi on "Borracho Grande" and does a bit of a back-porch blues shuffle on "Chicken Wing," not to mention throwing in a rampaging instrumental worthy of Brad Paisley on "Mousturdonus." Fowler makes it seem easy, which, combined with his decidedly regional appeal, may be why he's underrated: he's not flashy and he stays within his wheelhouse, but he knocks out records as satisfying as How Country Are Ya? on a regular basis, and that's worth something. It could be argued it's worth a lot. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine