J.D. Bauman

J. D. Bauman and The Boot Band

Send It East

** ½ 

Trains I Missed Recklessly Broken/Jesus and Jack/See You In My Dreams/Just One Minute/She’s A Lover Of Lost Causes/I’ve Been Lonely Too Long/Hold That Thought/We Had It All/I Know A Good Thing When I Leave One/Sunday Morning Coming Down/Bad Mother Trucker/What I’d Do/Trains I Missed(Radio Edit)

Producers: Fred Vail, Harry Stinson, and J.D. Bauman

Double Eagle Records

55:02

The press release mentioned several things that served as clues as to what I about to hear. One was that he was the Colgate Country Showdown California winner in 2003. From that I assumed that the disc would be marked with a more modern sound. The other telling remark was his claim that after seeing “Garth Brooks” he’s “lived in his boots”. Again the record sounds like what you would think……….

A bit more aggressive than Garth in his delivery, which isn’t bad, he plows through 14 tracks. To be fair he slows it down for half the tracks, but most of those seem a bit rocking to my traditional ears. In fact, with the exception of the cover of Waylon’s We Had It All, the mix is heavy on guitars. Surprisingly, well maybe not, this track provides one of the high points of the disc.

Other standouts include the self penned See You In My Dreams, and I Know A Good Thing When I Leave One (credited to M. Dame and J Ross). Both could more than ably serve as singles.

Reading more of the liner notes I expected the Marty Stuart co-write I’ve Been Lonely Too Long and Bob McDill’s She’s a Lover Of Lost Causes to be good. Of course, they were, but maybe not the best things that ever left their pens, leaving JD with tracks that are only OK. Also only OK is JD’s version of the oft-covered Sunday Morning Coming Down. 

Recklessly Broken, makes me think of a polished to a sheen Chris Knight track. The difference being that Chris would have demanded more grit in the production. Jesus And Jack (no question of subject matter here!) sounds like it could have been a Travis Tritt album track, which if that’s your thing, you’ll quite like. Both follow in sequence the lead off track Trains I Missed, a Walt Wilkins co-write. A radio edited version of this song of things missed that lead you to where you need to be also closes the album.

Just One Minute, about what can happen in that amount of time, and Hold That Thought, being those thoughts of a love lost, both ride too close to that new country line of being overly sentimental.

About What I’d Do, JD says,” As cheesy as it sounds, I wrote this song for my future wife. I imagined how I would want to feel if I was getting married…….and out came this song”. Tells you what you need to know, right there doesn’t it! And I am sure she will like it when the time comes. So….. We can file it in the bin marked “it wasn’t written for me so it doesn’t matter if I like it.” 

That leaves only Bad Mother Trucker…. which I could just plain do without.

With this project, JD has created something that will probably open up some paths for him to follow. The problem is that I’m not so sure how far these paths can take him.