Don’t you just love it when none of the local record stores
carry the works of a hometown musician and you have to send away for and/or
cross the state lines to get the goods?
This Tempe-born (who remembers watching Reggie Jackson play baseball at
Arizona State University) and current Phoenix homesteader/musician plays a
pedal-steel guitar in a signature style as timeless as Route 66 and as cool as
a dewdrop inn. Best known for backing
city & western musicians like Neko Case, Sally Timms and the Calexico
stable, the tables are tuned on this record with the pedal-steel coming to
forefront while special guests amble in and out through the swinging saloon doors. Inside the album, it’s the
cover songs where Rauhouse and his pedal-steel guitar really glow. He puts a cool new shade on “The Lonely Bull” “Perfidia” (with a brief,
but welcomed “Pet Sounds” quote) and
“Summer Samba” while reminding listeners how enduring and wonderful those
aforementioned songs really are. JR reaches this comfortable fruition by
knowing when to illuminate his renditions with single spare candle or when to
adorn with the multi-colored glowing patio lights. His originals have a homespun quality that
would be great to hear beyond indieworld and between segments on Nation Public
Radio or even on the front porch of an Indiana Crackle Barrel. Don’t be expecting the grand sweep of the Friends of Dean Martinez, just
be ready for some twangy pedal-steel guitar that sometimes swings like that
pirate ship at the fair and other times stretches out like the vast desert
itself.
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