Outlaws Like Me

iTunes Review

Those looking for more neighborhood nostalgia — the kind that landed Justin Moore a hit with 2009’s “Small Town U.S.A.” — need look no further than “Redneck Side” which opens Outlaws Like Me by blending quaint, small-town imagery with tales of wild, good times — all to the rootsy tones of barn-burning fiddles, twangy Telecasters and a grinding Hammond B-3 organ. The harder rocking “My Kind of Woman” similarly solemnizes a Southern-bred significant other who is partial to tractors and trucks. Moore downshifts on the moving ballad “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” while keeping the sentimental yearning of yore in tact with vivid lyrical imagery of good old-fashioned country livin’ punctuated by a weepy pedal steel. He even dabbles in some old-school Southern rock with “Beer Time.” The late Charlton Heston would have loved the tune “Guns,” a twangy, new-traditional Second Amendment anthem that simmers in the sounds of minor chord-driven arena rock.