I like Charlie Worsham. I’m predisposed to modern country, but here’s the thing: when I’m stuck in the mother of all traffic jams and an eight-mile journey to work has taken me 55 minutes, I am not being funny. The last thing I need is him telling me not to worry about red lights, as he does in “Things I Can’t Control” (which really happened the other day).
That quibble aside, “Compadres” is exactly what you’d want from an EP like this.
The clue is in the title, “Compadres.” It’s an informal way of greeting your mates, and it feels like that. Each track, all produced by Jaren Johnston of TC3, features a guest, and they all have a laid-back feel.
“Handful Of Dust” is bluesy and swampy, but it’s a sweet love song, and Lainey Wilson is perfect for it. That’s the skill here, the way they picked the guests, like Kip Moore on the honky-tonk-ready “Kiss Like You Dance,” where they get “lost singing way back songs,” shows tremendous thought.
Luke Combs is on hand to get all emotional on “How I Learned To Pray,” which is exquisitely done from the mention of AC/DC onwards.
I’d assumed “Clearwater Clear,” on which Elle King is brilliant, would be a romantic look back, and to a point it is, but there are mattresses in the water, and “the world don’t always look like God designed it.”
The last one, the one that annoyed me this week, is probably the best. Worsham is a member of Dierks Bentley’s touring band, and the boss is here for the duet.
It’s a cracker too, but so are the others. Worsham spoke about the amount of fun he had making this. It shows. If you like modern country, it’d be hard not to feel a kinship with “Compadres.”
