Ray Wylie Hubbard
Snake Farm
Sustain Records
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also available on amazon
Ray Wylie and Gurf Morlix have harnessed the growl and latent power of a pack of Harley Davidsons being revved up before a run on this disc, the power and majesty of a stallion showing off for the mares. The deep rumble of Hubbard’s vocals are echoed in the sound of the guitars’ of Gurf Morlix and this sound perfectly matches the mood and message of the songs. Mr. Hubbard will forever be linked with the song that catapulted him to fame and is probably bears the least resemblance to the rest of his body of work. This master storyteller who is among the upper echelon of writers does it better than most and is literate as anyone now composing songs has put together 11 songs (he wrote 9, co-wrote one and “Resurrection” was written by Al Grierson) in his eternal quest (search is too weak a word) for the song he has to sing. This disc contains tales of dealing with the devil, falsehood
by women and those he has to deal with, enticements both entangling and enticing in all degrees of danger, stories of life lived on edges that can carry you to the highest peaks or drop you suddenly that edge into fathomless valleys that have no bottom. It is summed up very well just in the titles of the last 2 songs on the disc, “Live and Die Rock and Roll” and “Resurrection.” This disc contains the power and might, cloaked in the bottomless fumble of the guitars, of the old time muscle cars roared and howled as they took you down the road to who knows where and you didn’t care or didn’t worry about it either, the thrill was in the ride.