I actually wish I'd heard this disc back last year when it was released, but somehow, I managed to miss it. I think I would have liked it better had I heard it before Billy Bob formed up The Boxmasters. Still, Billy Bob has more than a little skill at writing superior songs, and his performances of them are as crisp and sparklingly sparse as one could possibly wish. When it comes to solid Americana, Billy Bob Thornton has a grasp on exactly how to move the mind, heart, and spirit.
Everybody knows Billy Bob as an actor. He wowed the country music world by casting Dwight Yoakam in Sling Blade, with the duo turning in performances that were absolutely breathtaking.
At the time no one knew that Yoakam wasn't the only country singer in the show - turns out Thornton is a singer/songwriter, too. And a damned fine one, at that. With his writing partner Brad Davis, he turns out twelve crystalline tunes, proving it's not just prose he can write, that he is the show business triple threat - writer, singer, actor - and while he has managed to play just about every kind of role a great character actor can play, from simple-minded murderer to high- strung geek, and his movies have been seen by millions of viewers, few enough people have heard his music.
He started out with Private Radio in 2000, and recently found his niche as a rockabilly drummer with the Boxmasters, and in-between he's turned out The Edge of the World and Hobo.
Thornton's songwriting has a certain streamlined style, with lyrics such as "Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm blind, 'Cause I can't understand the kind of mind that kills for God or money or the land, it just seems odd to take the kind of stand" or "the news is full of crime and people love to hear it, they hang on every line even thogh they fear it, as long as it is someone else who's suffering the pain, they'll suck their beer and belch and watch the blood pour like its rain." He speaks out in story songs, poignant poetry, rasped in Thornton's gravel-rich voice to the gritty, rootsy sounds that would be at home with the likes of James McMurtry, Rodney Crowell, or Steve Earle.
There is bitter truth, deep longing, violent and tender emotion; captured in tightly woven melodies that never once fail or stumble. Beautiful Door is a beautiful listen, and another triumph for the magnificent talent of Billy Bob Thornton.
Release Date: July 24, 2007 - Label: New Door Records
Track List:
- It's Just Me
- Restin' Your Soul
- In the Day
- Beautiful Door
- I Gotta Grow Up
- Hearts Like Mine
- Carnival Girl
- Always Countin'
- Pretty People
- I Can Tell You
- Hope For Glory
- The Boy Is Gone
