because he got his start in nashville, both with the band steeldrivers and writing hit songs for other country artists, it was probably natural that when he hit it big with his 2015 ‘travellers’ album, he was cast in the country genre. but that album, and his next two, showed that he was comfortable adding other influences to his songs.

when i added the cd to my itunes library, it tagged it as ‘country & western’. it is not. this is a multi genre album that skillfully mixes r&b, rockabilly, americana and soul, just to name a few. chris is at the top of his game here, and i think this is his best album yet. it opens with ‘starting over’, and ends with ‘nashville, tn’ – the latter a farewell to the city that got him started. he is clearly trying to make music of his own interests, while also making it hard to categorize his work. as i have mentioned before, i tend to be attracted to artists that defy description.

he coproduced it with dave cobb, and every track is well constructed and artfully played. he wrote or cowrote 11 of the 14 tracks. his three covers are an obscure john fogerty song, and two from guy clark (interestingly placed back to back near the end of the album). the lineup is considerably strengthened by adding in some outstanding work by the two ex petty hands, mike campbell and benmont tench. as always, his wife morgane adds great backup vocals.

listen to mike campbell’s guitar on this rocker:

but this is probably my favorite song. if you have ever had a dog that held a special place in your family, and then watched it succumb to old age, you will have a hard time keeping your emotions in check on this track. one of the great dog songs ever.

this post is dedicated to kobe, our friends’ dog who embodied everything about this song. ‘i can tell you right now, that a dog has a soul’. yes it does.

r.i.p., kobe.