It ain’t often you’ll find me writing about female country singers. The fact is most of the modern crop are out of Nashville and are little more than pop with a steel guitar or fiddle and them actually being called country, in any fashion, is an affront to the whole of true country music. None of the mini-skirt-with-a-cowboy-hat-pop-singing divas can hold a fucking candle to Patsy, Dolly or Linda! Hell they are not even worthy of tuning the guitars of those lovely ladies. However once in a while a girl comes along that gets what country is about this time it’s Leyla Fences and to top it off she’s Red Dirt to the core.
I almost didn’t listen to this album due to my feelings expressed in the above mini-rant but I did and I glad of it. Not a single song on Liars, Cheats & Fools sounds like it could be a “crossover hit”. Instead of trying to sound like anything that you might hear on the radio today Leyla Fences has given us an album that opens with a steel guitar filled honky tonk song that while written from a woman’s perspective could have the roles reversed and not sound out of place on a Merle Haggard album from back in the day and certainly one worthy of putting her right beside Dolly Parton or Linda Rondstadt on a compilation. (I meant that Merle thing as a compliment by the way.) She flaunts her Texas accent and writes lyrics that put her firmly with Whitey Morgan in the Oh-My-Fucking-God-I-Can’t-Believe-Anyone-Is-Still-Making-Real-Honky-Tonk-These-Days category. It was released on my birthday this year and I promise you it’s the real deal. If you like music that makes you want to find a sawdust covered floor, a bottle of whiskey and pretty girl or cowboy to swing around for a few songs then this one is for you. It’s Essential Listening as far as I am concerned. In fact I would kill to see Leyla on tour opening for Whitey Morgan and the ’78s. I would so be sleeping in my truck that night…
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