| Randy Hopper's whiskey-and-the-working-man songs exist mostly among country's undiscovered gems, since Hopper and his band, Big Texas Boys, continually play the same set of small North Texas venues that seldom expose the songs to the bigger audiences they deserve. Satisfied, like his other CDs, is also self-released and doesn't have the marketing push behind it that it deserves.
It's a familiar plight for many good songwriters and bands who seem to perform because they must, seldom in venues capable of attracting more than a hundred or so loud, talkative, semi-attentive beer guzzlers. Such bands cultivate small, loyal groups of real fans and feel lucky when (if) they get a little bit of airplay on equally obscure ratio stations.
Hopper wrote or co-wrote all of 10 songs on Satisfied, his third CD. The songs are filled with sincere, down-to-earth lyrics and polished music, but never so polished that it loses its appeal. His smooth-voiced, country-twang baritone delivers the songs (most of them familiar to that fan base from the band's live performances) without a hitch. They deal with true love and love's ache, love and loyalty, independence and pride. Songs like "Whiskey Wishin' (on a neon star)" and "(I wouldn't need this whiskey) The Way I Do" deal with the ache, while "Depend On Me" deals with love and loyalty.
The experienced band is crisp and solid: Hopper on acoustic guitar and as bandleader, Jeff Davis on electric guitars, Stan Ragsdale on bass, and J.P. Evans on percussion. One of Hopper's sons, Jeremy, adds background vocals, and Ian Dickson adds finger-style guitar on one song.
It's a shame that anyone who performs and makes CDs as well as Hopper still has to hold a day job; at the same time, that day job may be what keeps his work so strong. |
