Sugar Shack

Album Review

Fowler has been winning fans all over his native state of Florida with his exceptional skills on guitar, slide guitar, and lap steel. His sound is blues based, but there are hints of country, swamp rock, R&B, and swing in his playing and songwriting. Sugar Shack is his fourth album, and shows his growing confidence as both a songwriter and performer. "Some Fun" shows off Fowler's acoustic side; it's a rocking country-blues with Scott Key's slap-happy syncopated brush work adding to the song's drive and bright, hedonistic message. Fowler's cheerful vocal gives the tune a playful feel. "I Hope It's Gonna Rain" is a fatalistic, slow blues ballad. Fowler moans the lyric and plays a long, greasy solo that emphasizes the guitar's bass stings to give the arrangement a spooky vibe. "Wrong Side of the Road" has a slight reggae feel to the rhythm guitar while still remaining bluesy. He adds a concise country-rock solo to bring the tune home. "James," an R&B ballad, tells the story of a guy whose life is a long road of suffering and pain; his father was sent to jail while the boy was in grammar school his wife stole everything he ever owned, and he's slowly sinking into an alcoholic stupor, but Fowler manages to bring a bit of compassion to the tale, without irony or overstatement. The title track is a swampy jam that tells the story of an after-hours club where everything is for sale. Fowler's ominous lap steel solo has the right mix of danger and excitement. You can often tell how good a picker is by the new wrinkles he adds to classic tunes and Fowler completely reinvents the covers he picked for Sugar Shack. Merle Haggard's honky tonk weeper "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" gets dressed up in blue rock & roll clothes. Fowler's clanking rhythm work, and Chucky Riley's driving bass set up Fowler's smoking, angular solo. On his second chorus, Fowler pays tribute to Haggard's late guitarist Roy Nichols, by dropping quotes from the leads he played on tunes like "Mama Tried" and "Lonesome Fugitive." Billy Joe Shaver's "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal" gets turned into a bouncy country-rocker with a fine crackling solo from Fowler. "Third Rate Romance" hews closer to the version by the Amazing Rhythm Aces, with Fowler's vocal emphasizing the tawdry scenario while his lap steel adds growling asides. ~ j. poet, Rovi