Ray Wylie Hubbard
5-10-2018
Texas' self-proclaimed outlaw Ray Wylie Hubbard has been making outspoken country rock for legions of fans since the 70s. His first hit "Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother" was made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker. Since then he's released over a dozen albums, tours relentlessly and uses his boisterous personality to host a radio show from his home.
Whether or not you subscribe to the adage that the devil always has the best music, you can take it on faith that anytime he pops up for a cameo in a Ray Wylie Hubbard song, the results are gonna be pretty damned entertaining. And as any fan of the Hubbard cannon knows, Old Scratch pops up in his songs a lot - nearly as often as all of Hubbard’s wise-cracking black birds, lyrical and musical nods to Lightnin’ Hopkins, bad-ass women (usually Hubbard’s own wife, Judy), and a myriad of other grifters, ruffians, and scrappy cats of the gnarly and general lowdown variety. Somewhere or other on just about every Ray Wylie Hubbard album, the devil always gets his due - and he’s now even worked his way up to top billing on the acclaimed songwriter’s latest, “Tell the Devil I’m Getting There as Fast as I Can” (released August 18, 2017 on Bordello Records through Thirty Tigers).
That wry Ray Wylie wit, which filled every page of his compulsively readable and hair-raisingly candid 2015 memoir “A Life… Well, Lived,” can be found in spades on this album, along with heaps of the patented “grit ’n’ groove” that’s been a Hubbard hallmark and one of the most oft-imitated but never-equaled signature sounds in all Americana.
Recently, Hubbard was invited to sing one of his songs at a sold-out arena show by mainstream country sensation Eric Church, who had name-dropped Hubbard in the title track to his 2015 smash album “Mr. Misunderstood.” To return the favor, Hubbard invited Church to sing with him on Tell the Devil’s title track - right alongside none other than Americana queen Lucinda Williams. The unlikely trio came together piecemeal via bouncing tracks between different studios, but the end result, with all three voices coming together by the end of the song like a rock n’ roll benediction, is pure magic. It’s one of those Bob Seger ‘Turn the Page’ type road songs,” explains Hubbard. “But it’s kind of a love song in a way, too. It’s about this old guy who lives and dies rock ’n’ roll - that whole deal where you’re in it and you ain’t ever gonna get out of it - and it’s about the woman he loves who can out-cuss any man.” He pauses a beat before stating the obvious with a chuckle: “So yeah, it’s pretty much all based on truth.”
VIDEO (Redneck Mother) - VIDEO 2
Texas' self-proclaimed outlaw Ray Wylie Hubbard has been making outspoken country rock for legions of fans since the 70s. His first hit "Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother" was made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker. Since then he's released over a dozen albums, tours relentlessly and uses his boisterous personality to host a radio show from his home.
Whether or not you subscribe to the adage that the devil always has the best music, you can take it on faith that anytime he pops up for a cameo in a Ray Wylie Hubbard song, the results are gonna be pretty damned entertaining. And as any fan of the Hubbard cannon knows, Old Scratch pops up in his songs a lot - nearly as often as all of Hubbard’s wise-cracking black birds, lyrical and musical nods to Lightnin’ Hopkins, bad-ass women (usually Hubbard’s own wife, Judy), and a myriad of other grifters, ruffians, and scrappy cats of the gnarly and general lowdown variety. Somewhere or other on just about every Ray Wylie Hubbard album, the devil always gets his due - and he’s now even worked his way up to top billing on the acclaimed songwriter’s latest, “Tell the Devil I’m Getting There as Fast as I Can” (released August 18, 2017 on Bordello Records through Thirty Tigers).
That wry Ray Wylie wit, which filled every page of his compulsively readable and hair-raisingly candid 2015 memoir “A Life… Well, Lived,” can be found in spades on this album, along with heaps of the patented “grit ’n’ groove” that’s been a Hubbard hallmark and one of the most oft-imitated but never-equaled signature sounds in all Americana.
Recently, Hubbard was invited to sing one of his songs at a sold-out arena show by mainstream country sensation Eric Church, who had name-dropped Hubbard in the title track to his 2015 smash album “Mr. Misunderstood.” To return the favor, Hubbard invited Church to sing with him on Tell the Devil’s title track - right alongside none other than Americana queen Lucinda Williams. The unlikely trio came together piecemeal via bouncing tracks between different studios, but the end result, with all three voices coming together by the end of the song like a rock n’ roll benediction, is pure magic. It’s one of those Bob Seger ‘Turn the Page’ type road songs,” explains Hubbard. “But it’s kind of a love song in a way, too. It’s about this old guy who lives and dies rock ’n’ roll - that whole deal where you’re in it and you ain’t ever gonna get out of it - and it’s about the woman he loves who can out-cuss any man.” He pauses a beat before stating the obvious with a chuckle: “So yeah, it’s pretty much all based on truth.”
VIDEO (Redneck Mother) - VIDEO 2