Hogtied Revisited

iTunes Review

Not a subliminal nod to Dylan but rather a simple statement of fact, the seemingly awkward title of Hogtied Revisited is alerting newcomers to the fact that the album is a re-recording of an earlier work — the little heard, now discontinued release Hogtied Like A Rodeo. The L.A.-based singer-songwriter Jake Smith (a.k.a. the White Buffalo) decided that the songs of Hogtied Like A Rodeo deserved a wider audience. This spruced-up version certainly boasts higher production values but the mainstays of White Buffalo’s music, a boastful irreverence borrowed from Waylon and Hank Jr., aggressive country-rock instrumentation, and intense, guttural vocals are all firmly in place. Some listeners might be offput by Smith’s singing which combines the tobacco strained growl of Tom Waits with the oddly quavering tremelo of Eddie Vedder, but ultimately Smith’s impassioned, if occasionally melodramatic vocals help to put his songs across, lending an air of authenticity, if only an assumed one, to his tales of hard luck and hard living on the great Western plains.