Brent Bennett and Rob York's CD, Crossing the Country, is a finely crafted recording that features twelve original songs written by Bennett and York, or by Brent Bennett alone, that properly belong in that excellent country music songwriting tradition that extends from Jimmy Rodgers and Hank Williams to modern luminaries such as Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson. These songs are "white blues" roots music at its most honest, torchy and funky, and all are expressions of these through eloquent, lyrical poetry. If there can be said to be a fault with these twelve most original songs on Crossing the Country, it is that they are too good. Really too good for the formulaic that comes too much out of country music nowadays, too creative, too striking, to market with an eye toward "mainstream mediocrity" demographics to have the chance they deserve for commercial success. But enough of that. Potential for commercial success or not doesn't get in our way of celebrating the musical treasure trove we have on Crossing the Country, and appreciating each one of these gems in the diadem individually. Further, the music composed and arranged for each of these songs, with vocals, it seems, all done by Brent Bennett, doesn't try to be either ersatz rock or maudlin "redneck retro." It's just straightforward, as honest as the songs it backs, and played quite well by Bennett and York. In the twelve songs of Crossing the Country we have both novel themes for country music explored, as well as novel approaches to traditional country themes. For example, we have four different approaches to country's venerable theme of "hitting the road," which show that there's many different ways to hit that ol' highway and get out, or go where we truly want to go. The opening cut, "Nashville Here I Come," is about being talented and stuck in small town stagnation, but busting out of this to try for the bright lights, big city of Nashville (and no, I don't mean Indiana tourist trap Nashville, Indiana, a Kafkaesque metaphor I use here for that ending-up for all too many unappreciated Indiana musicians, who play anonymous, underpaid gigs over the long time only to find themselves stranded, neglected, and without car fare out). There's celebration of the take-this-job-and-shove-it hobo road on "King of the Highway," hitting that get-in-my-truck-and-leave-that-evil-woman-behind highway on "Goodbye Gear," and traveling that slipping-out-on creditors road on "Greyhound Tomorrow." All taking us on rollicking journeys to destinations that we really want to reach. We have the torch songs of losing and finding love given by the Eagles-like ballad of pining, "Seven Months & 14 Days," and the exultant melting-of-hardness-by-unexpectedly-finding-love celebration given us on "Barbed Wire." The poignant, Kristofferson-like, "The Sign," looks at homelessness through a moving "there but for fortune" accidental confrontation. "The Sign" makes a statement that's philosophical and compelling, but not preachy or maudlin, a country counterpart to the elegant yet philosophical blues songs written by Indiana's Milligan and Steam Shovel. In both cases, we have songs that stun us with thought, but don't hammer the obvious into our heads like it was a railroad spike. The theme of getting-into-fatal-trouble-with-the-law finds this same compelling, non-sappy treatment given it on "Trouble in Texas." And finally, in tune with contemporary country's finding out that there's more to sex than what's told or understood by Bible Belt Baptists, Brent Bennett gives us four open expressions of the joy of lust, delightful celebrations of the erotic in those ways that rock came to know, and the blues always knew. Bennett, both in song lyrics and vocals, makes a fine male Shania Twain indeed. And that rock-like openness comes out well on both the frolicsome bawdiness of the modal "My Neck of the Woods," and the uptempo seductiveness of the ballad of seduction, "Ride My Train." Bennett also develops his feeling for the erotic in two songs wrapped thematically around venues, with both songs taking different approaches. There's the eagerly anticipatory room-for-the-night at the "Wishing Well Motel" revel on one hand, but also the deep understanding of the loneliness and longing that's often coupled with the lustful in barroom trysts, "Three Nickels and a Dime," where Bennett eloquently gives us both sides of that coin in one song that both surprises and celebrates--companionship as well as sexual desire. These twelve well crafted songs on Crossing the Country, harken us to that halcyon time of the late Sixties up to the mid-Seventies, when pop music across all genres could boldly cross lines and explore limits that were both artistically and commercially successful, that time now so seemingly gone when country could accommodate both Merle Haggard and the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Johnny Cash could commune as a soulmate with Bob Dylan. Perhaps the songs on Crossing the Country, which express the creativity of that extraordinary time so well, will find receptive ears and participate in a revival of that creative era, such as perhaps the Dixie Chicks' uncompromising boldness on Taking the Long Way is hopefully a harbinger of. Perhaps a hoped-for melding of the striking and the traditional through a shared creativity is in the wings, and if so, then Brent Bennett and Rob York are trailblazing scouts for it along with the Dixie Chicks, just as this writer finds in Natalie Maines echoes of Patsy Cline.
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