Search - Johnny Bush :: Sings Bob Wills

Johnny Bush, the former Ray Price sideman who steadfastly and successfully upheld the honky-tonk style Price renounced in the '60s, recorded this album in the early '90s at Willie Nelson's Texas studio. The tapes wound up impounded during Willie's well-known IRS dispute before Bush retrieved them and released the album in 1994 as Time Changes Everything. Since only 4 of these 10 songs were recorded by Bob Wills, this is more a salute to Western swing in general than a full-blown Wills tribute. Nonetheless, it shows Bush in fine form on Merle Haggard's "Don't Sing Me No Songs About Texas" (with Hank Thompson) and "Time Changes Everything" (with Nelson). He dug deep for such Wills obscurities as "New Road Under My Wheels," "Warm Red Wine," and the pop favorite "South of the Border" (originally on a 1968 Wills LP). "Beneath a Neon Star" was actually a solo record by singer Tommy Duncan. While Bush's powerful vocal delivery is sublime, his self-described attempt to "re-create the 1930s Wills sound" with its horn section falters. The Playboys of that era were extremely loose, sounding nothing like these overly slick orchestrations. --Rich Kienzle