Search - Rob Mcnurlin :: Cowboy Boot Heel

The Beatnik Cowboy Rides Again

John Flavell | 01/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Try to imagine recording like this: You're in Johnny Cash's home studio, John Carter Cash (Johnny's son) is co-producing, and Grammy winner Ramblin'Jack Elliott is a guest as co-writer and performer. It could only be good.Rob McNurlin follows up his earlier rockin' project, The Last of the Beatnik Cowboys, with Cowboy Boot Heel, a quieter trip out through the ranges and roads of the American ether.He and Elliott team up together with "Tribute to Woody Guthrie", a musical hero of McNurlin's and a mentor to the latter. With this colaboration, and their road trips together, Elliott succesfully passes on a folk mantle, as he did with Bob Dylan.On "Cowboy Boot Heel", McNurlin, with Bo McCarty on bass and David Prince on electric guitar, takes on a ride through cold desolation to the mountains, with only the tapping of his heel to keep his soul focused. It's the trip, no matter how difficult, that matters.The music on this cd is lean and simple. It levels out right where it needs to be to get McNurlin's point across. The harmonica is clean and pure.This album can sit right up there on the shelf with Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and any other of the "Americana" performers we listen to mix up our moods."

I know this soul!

Michael G. Frazier | Morehead, Ky United States | 03/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I know Rob McNurlin and I really love and respect his work and him as a person. Unlike the pop country of today, Rob's music touches the essence of a hillbilly in everyone. If you want to listen to real country music you got to buy this and his other cd, "The Last of the Beatnink Cowboys"."

My Heroes Have Always Been

Michael G. Frazier | 01/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Authentic messages with music just as real. From down-home out West. Everywhere you've always wanted to go -- Freedom. So it goes, 'as my cowboy boot heel taps out the rhythm of my soul'. Play it in your car and mistake your whereabouts, thinking you're driving alongside a railroad track. I don't really want to review it, just give it to everyone or share the lyrics. But if you must compare, sounds a little like Johnny Cash with Dolly Parton verses. Fantabulous!!Over the next hillWillFulfill All your dreams.."