Last Fool at the Bar

Having Dwight Yoakam cover “Late Great Golden State” from his debut solo album, Jack of All Heartache, must have landed Mike Stinson some royalty checks, because his 2005 sophomore album, Last Fool at the Bar, resonates with noticeable improvement in production and accompaniment. (When not playing his own music, Stinson has also played drums for other musicians, including Lucinda Williams.) The opening title track is sleepy country-rock in the spirit of Gram Parsons, though Stinson sings through his nose in a twangy drawl, sounding at times as if he were Jimmie Dale Gilmore's long-lost son. The following “Six Pack of Lonely” plays with timeless honky-tonk aplomb, shuffling on a Bakersfield beat with masterful Telecaster picking that brings to mind such luminaries as the late, great Don Rich (of Buck Owens’ band) and Redd Volkaert (Merle Haggard’s preferred picker). But this song also showcases Stinson as an apt songwriter and lyricist with cleverly self-deprecating phrases like “With a tank full of teardrops and an endless roll of shame/The picture of a fool just needs a frame.”