A twentysomething Texan with movie-star looks, Cale Tyson made a splash in Americana circles with a debut steeped in sad, old-time flavours; he can even yodel convincingly, always a useful skill in a singing cowboy. This follow-up steps sideways into country soul (it was recorded at Muscle Shoals), adding horns to Somebody Save Me and Pain in My Heart (not the Otis Redding number), and plush strings to Ain’t It Strange, a forlorn barroom ballad, and the outstanding Traveling Man (“You can’t make a living when you’re living in your car”). Elsewhere, Tyson pays homage to Hank Williams on High Lonesome Hill (a rewrite of Williams’s Rambling Man). A traditionalist for the future.
