TAKE IT BACK (Jim Lauderdale, Leslie Satcher)
One of Brian’s two lead vocals on the disc, “Take It Back” has all the makings a ‘great lost Buck’ tune.

BH: “It’s just a great perspective from the male OR the female point of view. I’d never sung an ‘outside’ song that wasn’t a really old thing, but this really struck me as having a sensibility that I could relate to and other people could, too. Its like, ‘don’t push me over the edge, baby--I don’t wanna hafta tell ya again’...”
TV: “They’re both great writers and friends of ours. This one just grabbed us right away.”

LEAVE A MESSAGE, JUANITA (Brian Hofeldt, Tony Villanueva)
Ritchie Valens and Marty Robbins collide with Lieber & Stoller in El Paso...

TV: “The first song Brian and I wrote together after we signed with Tree Publishing. It brings back a lot of our older-style stuff, combining the twang and the Latin and kinda mixing it up. I already had most of the chorus from the summer before when we were on tour and the title came to me in a dream.”
BH: “Tony and I wrote this on a van trip back to Austin from Nashville. Tony said ‘I got this song,’ we started working on it, and got it finished on that long-distance drive. A little bit of Tex-Mex flair.”

ALONE WITH YOU (Brian Hofeldt, Billy Lawson, Dale Dodson)
Kyle Lehning’s elegant, layered production on this beauty recalls Fred Foster’s contributions to Roy Orbison’s classic work of the early-Sixties.

BH: “I wrote this with Billy Lawson and Dale Dodson. Billy’s practically like a swamper, down there hangin’ around Muscle Shoals in north Alabama; he really understands where we’re comin’ from. For me, this song really pulled in what people are thinkin’ now-a-days, after the last couple of years and all the troubles, ‘with everything goin’ on, I just wanna be alone with you’...”
TV: “The production definitely makes this my favorite cut we’ve ever done. I just think everybody--men and women, boys and girls--can relate to the sentiment.”

BOOMERANG HEART (Tony Villanueva, Kostas, Jim Collins)
An elastic guitar lick and a rubbery hook keep this one bouncing back for more.

TV: “We were comin’ off of doing the ‘Mountain Stage’ show in West Virginia, and we got in early to Nashville for Ed Adkins’ wedding, so I had an extra day. I called Kostas on the way in, and asked him to he’d like to get together. The next morning we hooked up and got Jim Collins over there, too. We wrote this one, had lunch and then wrote another one--that was a good day.”
BH: “This is one of Tony’s with kind of a sticky hook. We had a fun on it, but--I tell ya what--Tony worked me hard on the harmonies. We’re real proud of it.”

GENUINE (Tony Villanueva, Al Anderson)
Stinging British Invasion guitars, a backbeat, hand-claps, a Jerry Lee-styled vocal and anything else not nailed-down thrown in make this one an exemplary Derailers’ trophy hybrid.

BH: “The last few years, we’ve gone on the Delbert McClinton Cruise with Big Al. This one was just a natural--a real Liversfield/Bakerpool kinda thing, ya know? Everybody’s always ‘blamed’ me for the Beatles’ jones, but I had nothing to do with this. Maybe we can blame it on Big Al.”
TV: “We’d been trying to get together for quite awhile. It’s real fun; he’s a great guy and great to work with. He’s one of those ‘encyclopedia [of music]’ guys, like Brian.”

UNCOOL (Kelly Garrett, Tony Villanueva, Brian Hofeldt)
Confused about ‘what’s hot/what’s not’? Join the crowd; it’s a really big club...

BH: “Kelly’s another Tree writer pal of ours. I really like the quasi-“Okie From Muskogee” kind of a thing--confused and pissed-off but not sure about itself. What IS “hip” now? Heck, who knows? It’s like I don’t understand the ‘kids of today,’ and everything we used to think WAS cool, ISN’T. It’s tongue-in-cheek; we’re not against anybody that drinks cappuccino or coffee at Starbuck’s or anything like that. Really.”
TV: “Just poor me a cup of coffee.”

SCRATCH MY ITCH (Brian Hofeldt, Ed Adkins, Tony Villanueva)
It may be a long distance between the Mersey and the Charles rivers, but this hipster nugget spans Sixties’ transcontinental garage-band cool with finger-snappin’ ease. (That’s Brian singing the lead...)

BH: “Me and Ed were listening on the bus to Elmore James--I think Tony was taking a shower or something--and that groove was just really happenin’. It’s a real positive love song, too--it’s all about that idea that ‘you trip my trigger, and good things will happen’...” TV: “I prefer to keep talk about my showers private.”

WHOLE OTHER WORLD (Tony Villanueva, Bill Carter)
You could easily imagine George Jones and Billy Sherrill takin’ this sweetheart to the woodshed, but it’s too late--Tony, Kyle and the boys have got it covered quite nicely, thank you...

BH: “This captures the country-est part on the record , for sure--even more than “The Wheel.” It’s what radio should respond to. This is a GREAT song, and I think it’s what the people want to hear.”
TV: “It just might be our time. We say that every year, but I hope country programmers give this one some room. Country music’s been down a bit, and some of the older guys we know in the business that have seen it cycle say it always comes back...and it always comes back COUNTRY.”

THE HAPPY GO LUCKY GUITAR (Buck Owens, Don Rich)
Brian’s dazzling guitar takes this Buckaroos standard out to Huntington Beach. And, as another Brian once stated so succinctly, “Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world”...

BH: “We’ve been doin’ this one for five years, at least. It’s a staple of the live show and, really, it’s like fallin’ off a log. We had the great fortune of meeting Don Rich’s son--who, by the way, is a dead-ringer for his dad--and a real nice guy. We love Don as much as Buck, and it was real neat to get a representation of this side of the whole thing.”
TV: That’s the first song we’ve ever recorded that was written by Buck.

I LOVE ME SOME ELVIS (Doug Powell, Bryan Kennedy)
Once in a blue moon (of Kentucky), a guy comes along who won’t--or can’t--ever REALLY leave ‘the building’...

BH: “This song came through our producer, Kyle Lehning. He said you may not know what to do with this at all, but I know you’ll like it. It’s fun, and everybody’s got SOME Elvis in ‘em, so we figured why not do our part and help spread a little Elvis around?”
TV: “It’s not only a tip of the hat to Elvis and all the things he means to different people, but Brian tips HIS hat to James Burton on the lead at the end there. You’ve GOTTA be in touch with Elvis...”

THE WHEEL (Tony Villanueva, Ruth Ellsworth, Bill Carter)
When things start getting too weird, it’s a good thing to have a Designated Driver with a map...

BH: “This came from his heart, ya know? He just slipped right into it.”
TV: “I’m thankful to have it on the record. Every now and then, you just gotta throw up your hands and give it up.”

Album cover used with permission of Sony Nashville.