Josh Weathers has already been named Entertainer of the Year at the Texas Country Music Awards, raised fortunes for charity and, this week, makes his Grand Ole Opry debut. If all of that suggests a man with plenty of stories behind him, then Niles City Sessions captures an artist whose best chapters might still be ahead.
Recorded live to tape at the renowned Niles City Sound studios, these six songs possess the warmth and spontaneity that the method demands. There is nowhere to hide, but Weathers doesn’t need anywhere. The quality of both the playing and that extraordinary voice is apparent immediately.
Opening with “Dreams” is a brave move. Look, it’s a classic and nobody is ever going to improve upon the Fleetwood Mac original, but you can take it somewhere different. Weathers does precisely that, turning it into something soulful and entirely his own without losing the magic that made the song immortal.
“Heartache Like Her” is a lovely, more traditional country heartbreak song. He isn’t even attempting to conceal the pain when he sings, “I’m laying in a king-sized ocean of my pride.” It’s a magnificent line, delivered by someone who sounds as though he has lived every word.
“Love On A Roll” reveals the funkier side of Weathers’ rock ’n’ roll. It has the same sort of swagger the Rolling Stones find whenever they bring soul backing vocals into the mix. Happy, loose and infectious, its promise that “we’d make out like bandits” makes it sound as though, just for once, love might be worth the gamble.
“One” is for those blokes – and it will mostly be blokes – who can’t forget her and have convinced themselves that she must still be thinking about them too. Not me, you understand. Weathers understands them perfectly, though, and the result is a superb ballad that never needs to overplay its hand.
“When You Honky Tonk” is tremendous fun. So much so, in fact, that it could make even a teetotaller like me want to find a Fort Worth bar and join in. This is country music with a smile on its face, played by musicians who instinctively understand its traditions.
The closing “You Either Love Me Or You Don’t” sounds as though it came straight from the Elvis Country album that first opened my ears to this music more than 30 years ago. “You can stay or you can go, but you can’t do both,” Weathers reasons, before everything builds towards a crescendo worthy of Joe Cocker’s version of “With A Little Help From My Friends.”
With his creative juices already flowing following the release of his album earlier this year, and a Grand Ole Opry debut arriving this week, everything seems set fair in the forecast. You still need a Weathers warning, though, because this is great.
Rating: 8.5/10
