There are eight songs on this set which have been taken from ‘Marked Cards And Loaded Dice’, but here they sound very different indeed. Honest and real with only the cicadas for company as Steve accompanies himself on acoustic guitar in front of the old magnolia tree at the Anti-Corp/Black Matter Mastering headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. Owner Dan Emery continues to capture the soul of musicians with this simplistic set up, and long may he keep this series going as it is undoubtedly one of my real favourites and I never pass up the opportunity to discover who has come along this time. Given that Dan also comes from a punk/hardcore/metal background this must have seemed quite surreal given that Today is the Day is a local band, and here he and Steve were working on a solo country released recorded in his back yard.
It is interesting to compare the songs on here against those on the album as here there is a vital fragility and strength, very different indeed to the more commercial versions we get on the other, with Austin showing some very Neil Young stylings which are an absolute delight and the more I play this the more I want to listen to it some more, pretty much the reverse of ‘Marked Cards And Loaded Dice’. It will be interesting to hear if Austin runs parallel careers, or if he switches more into this style as there is no doubt he has a real talent of capturing the imagination and taking us back in time. Maybe he will get Emery to produce him when he next heads to a studio as if this is anything to go by the results will be wonderful.
Rating: 8/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/steveaustincountry
https://anticorpmusic.com/