Howdy Do!

Brent Amaker & the Rodeo sound like an act that spends a lot of time playing bars. The band maintains a steady beat from one track to the next on this, its second album, which is really a continuation of the first, self-titled disc. That beat is the familiar chick-a-boom of Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, a locomotive train rhythm with occasional clippity-clop percussion, topped by a twangy, Duane Eddy-style guitar and Amaker's resonant bass-baritone voice, with plenty of echo applied. Amaker, his tongue firmly in his cheek, sings songs like "I'm the Man Who Writes the Country Hits," "Girls Are Good," and "My Cheatin' Wife," and those titles give a good indication of his tendency to teeter on the edge of parody (self and otherwise), and sometimes lean too far over. But it's all in fun, and no doubt the "songs with cussin'" (as a sleeve note warns) only add to the enjoyment of the patrons who attend the group's many shows. Those listeners may not fully appreciate the level of irony Amaker & the Rodeo intend, but they're like to have fun all the same.