Little to cheer about. Formulaic, commercial contemporary country.
Beard? Check. Hat? Check. Let’s get started. Larry Fleet is a Tennessee native, and his brand of Americana is straight down the middle, radio-friendly contemporary country.
Lyrically, these songs deal often in the trite sentiments that sell by the bucket load – trucks, Jesus, drinking. There really is a lot of trucking and drinking going on. Fleet might reasonably live a life full of trucks and drinking; ours is not to speculate. There’s a lot of church and Jesus in there too, but let’s not fall down that rabbit hole of conjecture. Musically the compositions are simple and straight to the point, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they mostly serve to highlight the paucity of originality. Obviously, Fleet can certainly sing and the musicianship/production is first-rate. Fourteen songs make for a long record, and the formulaic, uninspiring nature of the music makes it seem longer.
The titular track claims a number of laudable influences, stemming from his parents’ ‘Stack Of Records’. But such a breadth of soul, rock and classic country chops are nowhere to be heard on this or any other track. The best track? Closer ‘Highway Feet’, which benefits from the Haggard-esque vocal sounds of Bryan Sutton and a Bakersfield style galloping rhythm. ‘Three Chords And A Lie’ is also a good song title, but not so good a song. Otherwise there’s very little here to recommend.
