What not to buy: Shooter Jennings & Hierophant – Black Ribbons
Why?: Kid Rock’s already done it…but better.
Okay, that’s pretty bad but seriously; why?: I live tweeted my thoughts as I listened to the album the first time. Let’s read them shall we?

@autopsy4: “Wake Up” the opening track of new Shooter Jenning’s album sounds like something an angst ridden highschool kid would have wrote.
@autopsy4: 4th song from new Shooter…disjointed. boring. again, lyrically juvenile.
@autopsy4: wait….there’s a song on here titled, “Fuck You I’m Famous” & it’s exactly what you’d think. What. A. Douche.
@autopsy4: “The Breaking Point” from new Shooter sounds like a rejected Kid Rock song…
@autopsy4: re: New Shooter Jennings album…I feel a “What Not To Buy” post in my future.
@autopsy4: “God Bless Alabama” from new Shooter is definitely chasing the Kid Rock crowd.
@autopsy4: “All of This Could Have Been Yours” was almost descent if Shooter would have just shut up at the end.
@autopsy4: “Light In The Sky” from new Shooter. Honestly, not a bad track. Reminds me of Red Hot Chili Peppers in a way.
@autopsy4: “Black Ribbons” okay, I see what he was trying to do…make a huge ballad thing is, it ended up being too whiny and then came the whistle…
@autopsy4: The opening of “Summer of Rage” makes me wanna listen to “The Final Countdown”
@autopsy4: “California Via Tennessee” man, how do those Kid Rock rejects taste?
@autopsy4: did I hear Auto-Tune on “The Illuminated”….::rewinds:: YES! Yes I did.
@autopsy4: i wonder how many times the word “epic” was muttered while working on The Illuminated.
@autopsy4: and….we’re done. My suggestion is to not buy the new Shooter. It’s his worst to date and I’m sure it’ll make him a million dollars.
@autopsy4: in closing I’d like to say, Shooter…..your Daddy was famous. Not you.

So there you go. I think one of the folks who follows me on twitter summed it up best when he said, “The kid tries too hard.” To me, this album is an obvious attempt to cash in…on something. If this thing fails commercially, what trend/sound do you think Shooter will try to gravy train next? I don’t know if he ever managed to put that “o” back in country, but he is definitely bringing the “it” to sucks.

Shooter Jennings – Fuck You, I’m Famous
Shooter Jennings – California via Tennessee

Shooter Jennings’ Official Site, Some stuff to buy instead of this

What not to buy: Black Magik: the Best of Shooter Jennings and the .357’s
Why?: Because it’s as bad an idea as marrying Octopussy would be…
Okay, that’s pretty bad but seriously; why?: Okay, I am gonna go “old new school” SNL circa Fallon/Poehler here and we’ll play a game they called “Really?”

Really, Shooter, Really?….3 studio albums and you’re ready for a greatest hits album, Shooter? Really?
Have you really even had a hit yet Shooter……Really?
And take my advice, Shooter. When that stupid “Manifesto” song, “Busted in Baylor” and a subpar cover are in the running to be on your “greatest hits” tracklisting…you’re not ready for a greatest hits collection.

Really.

Look, I get it. Cash grab. I’m not an avid follower of Shooter but dude is obviously assimilating well into the mainstream country way of doing things and I can only guess that the Taylor Swift duet is already in the works. Some of Shooter’s best tracks **coughcoughHairoftheDogcoughcough* aren’t even included on this, his “greatest hits”, so I decided I would include them here, we’ll call it the Shooter’s Pretty Good Songs EP…and until Shooter writes a good song without Leroy Powell in his band I’ll consider him a fraud getting by on his Daddy’s name alone. Sort of like Dale Jr.

Shooter Jennings – Hair of the Dog
Shooter Jennings – Electric Rodeo
Shooter Jennings – Little White Lines

Shooter Jenning’s Official Site, Shooter Jennings on myspace

WTF happened here?

The Wolf, IMO, is horrible. Do not waste a penny on it prior to taking a ‘test listen’ in some manner. I knew going into this release that Leroy Powell had left the band, and he was responsible for penning some of my favorite tracks off the previous albums. Perhaps it was him being out of the mix, or perhaps it was just a stumble. I don’t know, but The Wolf is a terribly disappointing cd for me. It’s like everything that was wrong with Busted in Baylor….over and over and over. I don’t wanna harp on it. I just wanted to mention that the cd fell way short of my hopes and if you were really excited about it, you may wanna manage a listen before plopping down any cash on it.

Shooter Jennings – Walk of Life (Dire Straits cover)
Shooter Jennings – The Wolf
Shooter Jennings – This Ol Wheel

Shooter Jennings’ Official Site, Shooter on MySpace, Buy The Wolf

All that said. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he bounces back with his next cd. The show I saw earlier this year was wonderful as well and I’ll be attending the next Tampa/St. Pete show he plays.

Two tracks from Shooters previous album, Electric Rodeo:

Shooter Jennings – Hair of the Dog
Shooter Jennings – Electric Rodeo

I am a frequent reader of the Hank III message board. Apparently there is some beef between III and Shooter. I don’t know either one of them, so I could give 2 shits, but to some people on there you gotta like one or the other, regardless of whether you like them both or not. Because of that, I have read a lot of Shooter sucks show reviews. I tried to block them out and go into the show merely as a fan of the music who had never managed to see him live. I’ll never know if I went into that show with depressed expectations due to the III message board chatter or not, but I do know that Shooter and the .357s blew my expectations away.

They took the stage a little after 9 o’clock with no opening act. First thing I said to my wife was, “Looks like a scene right out of a movie about the Southern rock movement of the 70′s,” and she agreed. Seems fitting to me. While a lot of people call Shooter “country” I’ve seen both of his studio releases as more rock than country. Call it revivalist Southern Rock if you wanna, but they just reinforced my opinion live.

The crowd size honestly surprised me. I had not spoken to a single person outside of my wife in this area who knew who Shooter was, but judging from the sing-alongs, I need to get a little more talkative. They crowd knew their Shooter, in fact the only stuff that did not get a full crowd harmony was the new material. Personally, I had a great time adding my part to the harmonies and left the show with a shit-eating grin that can only come from too many drinks and a great night.

Highlights of the night for me were “Electric Rodeo”, “Lonesome Blues”, the new song, Shooter’s cover of I Don’t Think Hank Done It This Way, “Manifesto No. 2″ and my absolute favorite Shooter track yet, “Hair of the Dog”. Reduced expectations or not, I can tell you that the next time Shooter and Co. is in town they are gonna have one hell of a high water mark to live up to. Their own. Fuck that country label and the III message board. If you like that classic Southern rock sound, then check this kid out when he rolls through your town. You’ll thank me the next day after the hangover starts to recede.

Shooter Jennings – Hair of the Dog
Shooter Jennings – Manifesto No. 2
Shooter Jennings – Electric Rodeo

As a side note: My camera’s batteries died about 10 seconds after I turned the camera on and I had pretty much relegated myself to having to find a stock picture for this piece. Then I saw thee 3 people taking pictures from the crowd and it was immediately obvious they knew what they were doing, so I had the wife write down my email address and the web address.

They were really nice to the slurring drunk jackass (me, not the wife) who, in the middle of the show, is handing them a napkin with some contact info and going through this drunken spiel about a camera and dead batteries. They took my napkin with a smile and said “no problem,” so I wobbled away confident. Then Saturday passed with no email and the reality of a drunk fella at a concert approaching a stranger set in and I knew I was gonna be grabbing a stock photo for this piece.

Enter Sunday…and an email.

Turns out the fellas at Blind Imagery Photography weren’t just humoring a drunk person and to top it all off they sent me the photo that heads this piece. Freaking awesome. So much better than anything I ever would have taken and may I say it adds a sense of professionalism to the site.

Thanks for being awesome people!