Cory Morrow is part of a new and apparently bottomless supply of Texas country-rockers riding on the coattails of several earlier generations of outlaws, from Willie Nelson to Robert Earl Keen. Full Exposure is an ambitious mostly live CD, paired with a DVD anchored by the same live performance (which will be reviewed elsewhere in GMR). I wish I could say that it's something more than your standard Texas frat-boy party-time country. But it's not.
Morrow has a powerful set of pipes and a pretty good, if not stellar, band behind him. He writes most of his own material, which seldom rises above the level of the best that's coming out of Nashville's commercial country factory these days. This disc includes three studio tracks (the first three) plus thirteen from a recent tour, which was sponsored by America's biggest beer-maker.
The sound, like much of today's country fare, is Eagles crossed with country-period Stones -- mostly bluesy Texas shuffles and chugging rockers. Thematically, the music is dominated by drinking songs ("Drinkin' Alone," "Beer"), laments about life on the road ("The Highway," "21 Days," "Songwriter's Lament"), and what passes for love among testosterone-heavy Texas males ("Big City Stripper," "Texas Time Travelin'," "Love Me Like You Used To Do," and "Nothing Better," the opening track).
The studio tracks sound pretty highly produced, with layered acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass and out-front snare drum, with occasional flourishes from steel or slide guitar, fiddle or banjo to let you know it's supposed to be country. Aside from those touches, only Morrow's Texas drawl and the rhythms let you know this is supposed to be country, as opposed to generic pop-rock.
Morrow throws in the necessary references to Judeo-Christian diety, with a cover of Billy Joe Shaver's "Live Forever" and cries of "God bless you" and "God bless America" at the end of the set; and to patriotism, with the empty-headed soldier's lament of "GTMO Blues," about a jar-head stuck in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The most distressing thing is a totally irony-free cover of Waylon Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way?" -- at least Morrow had the good sense to let guest Pat Green take the lead vocal, but it's just this sort of performance that Jennings was lamenting when he penned the song about country acts that were rock in all but name, glitz and glamour and big corporate sponsors sapping the music of its life. (Next most-distressing are the snippets of Bob Marley songs during the band introductions, reggae being yet another genre that's in danger of being lost to frat-boys.)
There are plenty of current country acts that rock just as hard without pandering to testosterone-poisoned crowds -- from Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle to the Drive By Truckers and numerous lesser-knowns. Check them out and leave Morrow to the Bud-swilling yayhoos.
