Texas Unplugged Vol. 2

This is the second volume in the Palo Duro series of acoustic albums from their stable of Texas musicians. Included are the Derailers, Dale Watson, Johnny Bush, and Two Tons of Steel. This albums serves as both an introduction to the label as well as a look into Texas music in a particular style. The low-key, but not quite "stripped down", nature of the acoustic constraint gives a little more prominence to the songwriting in most cases, although Cindy Cashdollar and Carolyn Wonderland supply a wonderful Dobro/Guitar duet instrumental.

Of the twelve contributors to this album, only the Derailers and Watson are already in my CD collection. Their contributions are pretty close to the nature of their regular, electric work. I'm not sure about the rest of the people, though. I was a big fan of the MTV Unplugged years ago, but those performances often had little to do with the studio albums of the groups. Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York (their only listenable album, to me) is practically an alt-country album, quite different from their studio work or normal performances.

I am interested in following up on some of the groups on this CD. Two Tons of Steel has been on my wish list for a while, and the Sidehill Gougers sound very promising.

Listen:
The Sidehill Gougers - One Tiny Sin

Buy:
From Palo Duro
From Amazon