Bruce Robison – Long Way Home From Anywhere
Family ties have tended to overshadow Bruce Robison’s status as a promising young songwriter lately. Not only is he married to Kelly Willis, but his musician brother Charlie recently wed Emily Erwin of the Dixie Chicks. Such relations likely make for wonderfully musical holiday gatherings — but Robison’s music deserves to be observed of its own accord.
On Long Way Home From Anywhere, his sophomore effort for Lucky Dog, Robison offers further proof that his talent supersedes those clan connections. The opening track, “Drivin’ All Night Long”, epitomizes his penchant for delivering songs that sound straightforward but are strengthened by subtleties lurking just beneath the surface. The acoustic arrangement is a model of country-folk simplicity, and Robison’s voice is warmly reassuring, but the tale of exactly why and where he’s drivin’ all night long reveals a man wracked with quiet desperation.
As on his Lucky Dog debut Wrapped, which included collaborations with Monte Warden and Jim Lauderdale, a couple of co-written tracks are among the highlights here. This time his cohorts include Damon Bramblett on the sublimely swinging matrimonial ode “Just Married”, and Farrah Braniff on “Travelin’ Soldier”, a tender tale of wartime heartbreak bolstered by harmony vocals from Willis.
More surprising is the presence of three covers among the record’s ten tracks (compared to just one of twelve on Wrapped). Bramblett’s “Emotionally Gone” and Joe Dickens’ “The Good Life” are reasonably well-suited selections, but Robison’s haunting rendition of Cat Stevens’ long-forgotten “Trouble” stands out as a truly inspired choice.