Album Review: Eleven Hundred Springs – Country Jam

In conversation, as well as in my writing, I’m often dismissive of current, corporate, country music radio, so it’s typical to field accusations of “elitism,” of trying to pigeonhole country music’s sound into an early 60’s George Jones mold for narrow-minded nostalgia’s sake, and of requiring that every song have the pretense of earth-shaking significance. When I deny those charges I tend to be exasperatedly asked “well, what would you have the radio play then huh?” It’s a good question, and to start, I’d have them play songs from Eleven Hundred Springs’ Country Jam.

For those who are as of yet unfamiliar, Eleven Hundred Springs is quite possibly, the finest country music band in the game today and their latest album, Country Jam, finds them operating expertly within a wide variety of country music styles–from honky tonk shuffles, to Waylon-esque Texas country rock, to Rockabilly and more–while always sounding both distinct and original.

This long awaited album opens up with “Texas Afternoon,” a beautiful mid-tempo number with an awesome Flaco Jimenez-style accordion part, that in a just world would be a big radio hit. It’s the kind of song that you actually want to be stuck in your head for a few months–it’s pretty, it’s singable, it’s “feel-good” without insulting anyone’s intelligence, it has a great sense of spirit and story, and it’s expertly arranged and performed; to a point, it’s representative of the caliber of music that Eleven Hundred Springs produces.

Lead-singer and guitarist Matt Hillyer did most of the writing on the record, and, as he’s illustrated on previous records, he has a knack for writing infectious songs that seem like instant classics.

The first single from the record, “Every Time I Get Close To You,” compares favorably to songs like Rodney Crowell’s “Ain’t Living Long Like This.” It’s an incredibly engaging number that will perennially satisfy honky tonk crowds as a part of any country band’s live set; its hook is simple, as is its idea, its riff and melody are catchy and its groove is a perfect one to dance the night away.

Overall, the writing on the album is strong, even-handed, and probably qualifies Country Jam as EHS’s most well-written record yet. Aside from “Nobody Told You About The Love,” which I found to be beautiful melodically but hopelessly vague, every song is well constructed lyrically, they all have great-to-exceptional melodies, and Hillyer’s strong and catchy hooks set the bar for his contemporaries in that regard.

That being said, I do have a critique. In the song “Ten To Life” there’s a moment where after murdering a cheating lover, the main character panics and forgets where he parked his car. It’s a peculiar moment, but a telling detail, and one that helps to establish the character as more than just a puppet of a country song’s narrative. Maybe this moment made it into “Ten To Life” because the song has more verses, and thus more room to fill, than most of the other songs on the record. Maybe Hillyer felt that he had room to stretch out in this one, whereas in other songs he had to simply move the narrative along, or he didn’t want to risk distracting attention from his great hooks, but for whatever reason, those sorts of moments–peculiar, surprising, and revealing–are, for my tastes, too few throughout the record.

When a band is as excellent as Eleven Hundred Springs, and Matt, Steve, Danny, Jordan, and Mark should be very proud of this effort, it can be tempting to fault them for not being absolutely legendary at every turn–after all, they do seem capable of such a thing–but I think it’s important to re-iterate just how consistently good of a record Country Jam is. Hillyer’s voice has a remarkably sweet tone, and he uses it with a level of control that sets him apart as a singer, and as country musicians, the band is just playing these songs really, really, really well.

I was looking forward to this one being released, and now that it’s here, I can say that Country Jam has lived up to its promise and that Eleven Hundred Springs has produced a standout country record that, unlike the majority of corporate-Nashville’s offerings, is actually informed by country music’s traditions while sounding modern, present, and new. They stayed focused, kept it all between the lines, and while adding a well-rounded, consistent record full of good-to-great songs to their catalog, have produced the best album I’ve heard yet this year.