Johnny Bush - Kashmere Gardens Mud

For fifty years Johnny Bush has been one of the finest Texas swing honky-tonkers in the State of Texas, specifically Houston, where he grew up influenced by the sounds of Bob Wills, Floyd Tillman, and Lefty Frizzell. While Austin is the first place that comes to mind when thinking about Texas music, there is little doubt there's also a thriving music scene in the sprawling Gulf Coast city, melding the pure Texas sounds of western swing, Tex-Mex, and Delta blues. Bush draws inspiration from all of those influences to produce an album that's seeped in traditional sounds, filled with songs both modern and old, from Dale Watson's beautiful "Tequila and Teardrops" (with Dale's magnificent baritone adding duet vocals) to Hank Locklin's standard "Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On," a duet with Willie Nelson - who says of Bush, "Johnny Bush is one of my oldest and dearest friends. He and I started out together in music, and we're still together." Nelson also duets with Bush on the Townes Van Zandt classic "Pancho and Lefty." Yes, he did indeed do a duet on this same song with Merle Haggard - this time Willie changes places and plays Lefty rather than Pancho. It's a pretty cool switch, when you're listening along and knowing the Merle/Willie duet well. There's also the Cajun standby, "Jole Blon," several other Willie Nelson tunes, including "Bloody Mary Morning."

Johnny Bush is surrounded by friends on this disc, notably admirer, singer-songwriter, & guitarist Jesse Dayton, who takes lead guitar on several tracks and joins for a solo turn on "Free Soul" & backup vocals on "Bloody Mary Morning." There's also familiar names like Clive Owens, Floyd Domino, Billy Dee, Bobby Flores, Pee Wee Williams, and Justin Trevino - all mainstays of the Texas music scene. He also does a duet with his brother, the Reverend Gene Shinn, who is a fine vocalist on his own. With crack production (produced by Rick Mitchell, a music critic for the Houston Chronicle) and a singular concept, Bush settled in with his pals to "sing and play" his autobiography. That's what Kashmere Garden Mud really is - a musical look at Bush's life, beginning to end, and they even put the bonus track in its OWN track, not listed on the CD insert but with its own track and title on your CD player, which is so much better than "hiding" a track at the end of four minutes of silence on one's final disc cut. Thanks be to Johnny Bush!

And if you've never heard Jesse Dayton play guitar, pay special attention to the tracks where he's playing - he's a great singer and he's a fantastic songwriter, but that guitar is what brought him to the attention of the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. All in all, if you're a honky-tonker, a fan of Texas music, or a steadfast traditionalist, then you will enjoy the heck out of this disc. It's both an autobiography (several tracks are penned by Bush) and a musical tribute to tradition, and more than a worthy addition to any great music library.