:: Nashville Pussy - From Hell To Texas

Nashville Pussy

Southern USA hard rockers Nashville Pussy have been quite busy playing up a storm in front of audiences out on the road over the last few years. But for one reason or another, it’s taken a long four years for the band to find time to crank out a follow-up to their third full-length effort 2005’s ‘Get Some’. While the intervening years have seen a compilation album and a live DVD, it’s a new album that fans have been screaming out for. And finally they’ve delivered just that in ‘From Hell To Texas’. Perhaps it was the lengthy gap between releases, or the fact that the album was recorded at Willie Nelson’s lavish Pedernales Studios, or possibly the comfortable working relationship the band have with producer Daniel Rey, but either way, ‘From Hell To Texas’ is easily the band’s most accomplished effort to date. That’s not to say that the four-piece act have completely reinvented themselves, because nothing could be further from the truth. The twelve tracks that make up ‘From Hell To Texas’ are still the same southern influenced dirty rock and roll that fans have expected from the band since day one. No, what Nashville Pussy have managed to achieve this time around is write some fairly strong songs, and with almost all of them boasting a greater sense of melody. The fast paced opener ‘Speed Machine’ is definitely one of the strongest tracks on the album with its rocking riffs, raucous feel and Cartwright positively over the top vocal performance. Although not quite as strong as the opener, the title track ‘From Hell To Texas’, the catchy as hell ‘Drunk Driving Man’, ‘I’m So High’ and the country tinged ‘Lazy Jesus’ are firm favourites earlier on in the album, while ‘Dead Men Can’t Get Drunk’, ‘Late Great USA’, the sleazy heavy blues romp of ‘Stone Cold Dawn’ and ‘Why Why Why’ help keep the patchier tail end of the album rocking for the most part.
Nashville Pussy’s previous releases were at best inconsistent. And while ‘From Hell To Texas’ is far from a masterpiece, it’s clear that the band have given great thought to their songs this time around before heading in the studio. And it’s really paid off, with ‘From Hell To Texas’ showing that beneath the cheesy one-liners and drunken bravado, Nashville Pussy are actually capable of writing songs that actually have some substance.
I’m not sure that ‘From Hell To Texas’ is going to attract a legion of fans who were turned off by the band’s former efforts, but will keep diehard fans happy, and may even convert a few doubters who were previously unconvinced.