An album with some credible moments and interesting songs which lay the foundations for his solo career.
Country music can divide opinion at the best of times. It’s praised for its tropes and cliches as often as it is criticised. But when a song called Cheating and Lying starts with descending guitar and pedal steel chords, a Buddy Holly sting and a dark brown voice, the fuzzed-up baritone guitar solo, which fills up the middle of the song, feels sellotaped on to sound a bit Alt. and different, but the sinking feeling which the song provokes is only heightened by reading the press. “Jack Studer is your neighbor. He’s your buddy sitting on the porch picking tunes with a smile on his face, flipping over an old bucket for you to pull up a seat.”
The fiddle and sweeping pedal steel, which lead Shooting at the Birds feed into a song which is taken a gentle trot, which while keeping the cliché count up, is in keeping with the song, which feels more of an integrated whole than the opener. Shovels and Ladders is a massive improvement. A bouncy rockabilly tune, and the fuzz guitar and echo-drenched pedal steel are just right for what would have made a far better album opener.
Single Reverse Cowboy is a straight-ahead country song. Nothing much original about it, but it passes three minutes pleasantly enough, although it passes from the memory just as fast. Far better country arrives next with Ballad of Butch Nasty. This is where the tropes score, typical country sounds which Studer undermines with a little cynicism about the American dream, and a slightly risqué lyric. From here, the album improves rapidly. First World Problems continues the observational lyrics over another jaunty up-tempo country tune. If I Only Could is a folky, almost Tom Paxton-style song, and the title song is the best of the more traditional country tunes.
On the home stretch of the album Ten Out of Nine is another more folky moment and one of the best lyrics. Straightforward but heartfelt. Throwing Coins suggests that aiming at a more country rock sound would be a good plan, and final song, Passerbys and Fools, finds a better home for the Baritone Guitar and introduces a honky tonk piano, which would have enlivened some of the other tunes. Why bury the best song at the end of the album?
His press may have unwittingly hit on the problem with this album, stating that he is “currently based on the outskirts of Nashville.” And the music feels like he is trying to fit in with the expectations of that town, while actually being “originally from Philadelphia.” There is an argument that adding a little more Heartland Rock into the mix or allowing his folk tendencies out more often, rather than trying to be out-and-out country, would have improved matters considerably. There’s no doubt that Jack Studer is a competent songwriter, but the “well of mischievous wit and fearless introspection” which his PR would like us to see manifests more as a couple of nods and a wink moments and some twists on well-worn country cliches. This needed a more ruthless producer telling him where his strengths, Passerbys and Fools, Falling Forwards and Throwing Coins, lie. Rejigging the running order to leave the weaker moments less exposed would have made a huge difference to this competent album, which leaves room for a step forward next time.
