Gary Stewart - Out of Hand & Brand New (2013)

Included on this Floating World double are two of Gary Stewart's finest albums. Released in 1975 at the height of outlaw country's boom -- and this Texas songwriter's heyday -- Out of Hand was cut in Nashville with a stellar cast. It resulted in one of the most amazing collections of busted honky tonk, drinking, and love songs of the era and has dated well. From the opening "Drinkin' Thing" to the rocking version of Hank Williams' "Honky Tonkin'," and the raw bone stomper "Sweet Country Red," the pace is set for the joint to blow. But it's tempered by ballads such as "I See the Want to in Your Eyes" and "Backslider's Wine" that offer deeply emotive performances disguised in hedonism. It's a performance worthy of Haggard, Nelson, or Jones. Add to this one of the Top Ten greatest drinking songs ever in "She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles," and you have an indispensable, country record. Brand New was recorded six years later after an extended break. Stewart remains in excellent form, rocking a bit harder courtesy of guitar players Dale Sellers on lead and the Allman Brothers Warren Haynes on slide. Like Out of Hand, Brand New is a collection of bar-slammin' good-time honky tonkers and bent, broken love songs, all viewed from the bottom of a glass. "Brand New Whiskey" sounds like a Stewart rewrite of Guy Clark's "Take Me to a Barroom," and is every bit as good. "Lucretia" echoes Derek & the Dominos' "Layla," done country barroom style. Haynes' guitar acrobatics are especially effective. "Rainin' Rainin' Rainin" is classic Stewart: high and lonesome, with the morning-after blues. "Looking for Some Brand New Stuff" and "Son of a Honky Tonk Woman" come out of the Jerry Lee Lewis fakebook; they're all passion and pathos fueled with a piano-pumping fury. "I Get Drunk" is a honky tonk tune Jones would have been proud to cut. The set ends with "Murdered by Love," a romper-stomper blues jam with Haynes and Sellers tearing each other up, and Stewart singing his ass off over the top. Put together, this set makes for a compelling, even iconic portrait of one of the most underrated country songmen in history.