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Countryinterviewsonline.net Album Review |
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Monday, February 16, 2009
Countryinterviewsonline.net Album Review!!!Gary Bonnett- The Long Road Home
By: Michael W. Coyle
“I’ve been playing smoky barrooms, living town to town” Gary Bonnett sings on “One More Day,” one of the most introspective and beautiful songs from his CD The Long Way Home. It may be a long way home from his stomping grounds in West Virginia to Nashville, but Bonnett doesn’t forget his roots in mid-tempoed, toe tappers such as “West Virginians Are Coming Home” and “Rock Cave,” where he sings “Cause I’m heading back to Rock Cave, West-Virginny-1A, where the people love me no matter how much hell I’ve raised.” But with crowd-rousing songs like “$50 and a Flask of Crown,” “San Angelo,” and “Hillbilly Way,” Bonnett may want to start thinking more globally. There’s not much difference (other than big budget production) separating Gary from the hits topping the charts right now. He’s got the goods, with his vocals and down-home country songwriting, that with the right break he might just be singing about playing in smoke-free arenas in West Virginia. Overall, The Long Road Home is an interested collection of straight shooting country that would make any West Virginian proud. |
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AZNightBuzz.com Article on GBB |
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
AZNightBuzz.com Article on GBBCountry, Southern rock mix in Bonnett's music
By Cathalena E. Burch
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Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.22.2009
Google Tucson country music transplant Gary Bonnett's MySpace page, and you'll get one of those correction messages:
Did you mean Gary Bennett?
Ironically, Gary Bennett also is an alt-country crooner — based out of Nashville — and he also is playing a gig at a club with "moon" in its name, the Full Moon Saloon in Music City. (Our Gary Bonnett plays the Cactus Moon tonight.)
Bennett has some hefty street cred as the co-lead singer and a founding member of 1990s country superband BR549. But he has nothing vocally on our Gary Bonnett.
Bonnett has a twangy, rough-hewn baritone that belts out Southern red dirt odes to Texas as lovingly as he does to his native West Virginia.
He borrows as much from country as he does from Southern rock, with refreshing honesty and pop sensibilities that invite comparisons to Cross Canadian Ragweed and Brad Paisley.
"We are true to ourselves in the music we play and love every minute of it," Bonnett said by e-mail. "We write the stuff we play and live the stuff we write."
Bonnett transferred to Tucson last April with the Arizona Air National Guard. The intelligence analyst has been playing music all of his life and is carving out a niche in Tucson, including his gig tonight at Cactus Moon with critically acclaimed Texan Aaron Watson. Bonnett will perform cuts off his two indie albums, "See Me Now" and "The Long Road Home." |
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Caliente Review on the GBB |
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Caliente Review on the GBB!!
National nods for Tucson country boy05/19/2009 08:30 AM
Cathalena E. Burch
Country Weekly magazine last week gave West Virginia-raised, Tucson-blessed country singer Gary Bonnett three and a half stars for his new disc “The Long Road Home.” Personally, I give it four full stars.
Bonnett opens the disc with a spirited cover of Denton King’s Appalachian romp “West Virginians Are Coming Home.” The song is a delicious contrast to where Bonnett is now, seeped in what he terms red dirt country, a hybrid of Texas and contemporary country with strong recollections of an almost bluegrassy-hillbilly attitude. This guy appreciates fiddles, mandolins, steel and acoustic guitars wrapped around a solid storyline.
Highlights on the disc include his homecoming travelogue “Rock Cave” and the delightful piano-centered uptempo ballad “Amy’s Song.” The fiddle-fangled “Hillbilly Way” references 1970s Eagles while “San Saba River” has a soaring soundtrack.
Bonnett balances a hell-raising spirit of “$50 and a Flask of Crown” with touching declarations of love including the standout ballad “Without You” and the uptempo gospel-inclined “I’m A Christian.”
One of my personal favorites is the gig-hopping lament of “One More Day,” which is part pity party about the string of one-night-stands, both in the love sense and career sense, and part encouragement, seeing the light at the end and the reward of carrying on one more day.
On “The Long Road Home,” Bonnett introduces himself with such authority it makes you wonder not if Nashville and the rest of the world will take notice, but when.
You can catch Bonnett live at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Park Place mall as part of the mall’s live music series. On Friday, he’s gigging at Montgomery’s Grill and Saloon in Vail. His scheduleincludes a number of Tucson shows in coming weeks before he heads home for a string of West Virginia and Florida dates in mid-July. |
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Country Weekly Album Review |
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Thursday, May 28, 2009 Country Weekly Album ReviewGary BonnettThe Long Road HomeGary Bonnett was raised in West Virginia but now makes his home in Tucson, Ariz., andThe Long Road Home carries echoes of both his Appalachian past and his red-dirt present. Often quite literally, in fact—“Rock Cave” documents a road trip back to his hometown (where the people love me, no matter how much hell I’ve raised), and he covers Denton King’s “West Virginians Are Coming Home.” The lyrics also have a certain duality of spirit: Alongside the tales of hell-raising on Long Road sit forthright declarations of a more spiritual bent on songs like the standout “I’m a Christian.” |
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