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The new album opens with the rockabilly rave-up “Bump Wood,” which Kirchen describes as a “glad to be alive song,” but it also ventures into finger-snappin’ boho jazz with the title tune, and deep country with “Arkansas Diamond,” co-written with Bill’s Austin friend Sarah Brown and his wife Louise, the same crew responsible for the contemplative, wide-open-spaces ballad “Time Will Tell the Story.” But Kirchen also happily snags the Roger Miller standard “Husbands and Wives” for a bona fide guy/gal duet with Chris O’Connell, and together they turn in one of the album’s most moving performances.
Moving with the momentum and stylistic diversity of the T.A.M.I. Show and Mad Dogs & Englishmen (come to think of it, there are several members of both constituencies on this platter), Word to the Wise serves up heaping portions of rock ’n’ roll, country, boogie-woogie and Western swing. It’s loaded with verbal and musical witticisms, as well as moments of deep poignancy, all of it set against a vital backdrop of Telecaster twang, tremolo and reverb, as Bill does his thing, riffing like Chuck Berry on “I Don’t Work That Cheap,” whipping up thunder and lightning Richard Thompson-style on “Time Will Tell the Story” and spinning out quicksilver runs that recall Mark Knopfler’s work in front of Dire Straits on Blackie Farrell’s “Open Range.”
“I was surprised at how much guitar ended up on this record,” says Kirchen. “On some of the tracks, where we hadn’t figured out where the vocal was gonna be yet, I’d do the guitars sitting at home, and I’d just lather it on. I was assuming that Paul would have a more ruthless editing knife, but on a lot of the songs, like ‘Open Range,’ there’s just an ass-load of guitar. It’s funny, I didn’t set out to make as much guitar noise as I did, but then again, I can’t deny I played all that stuff. Part of it was being self-indulgent, just sitting at home with an amp in the basement and a cord running down the heat duct and having at it. It came out a little more rock ’n’ roll that way, which I really enjoyed. I tend to be a really clean country-based picker, and it was fun taking the Deluxe reverb and cranking it up. I hope it’s OK.” No worries, Bill—it’s more than OK; it’s downright godhead. - continued
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