If you're wondering where the return-to-roots movement that happened in country music in the mid-'80s went, it's alive and well in bands like
Johnny Dilks & His Visitacion Valley Boys. They play true country & western music with a distinct West Coast edge, à la Town Hall Party in the early to mid-'50s.
Dilks' voice is raw hillbilly, with an unrepentant redneck tone. He's not even above yodeling, as he does to great effect on "Lose That Woman Blues." His band,
the Visitacion Valley Boys, is a sturdy combo of lead guitar, string bass, fiddle, steel guitar, and drums that keeps it simple and swinging throughout. They tackle a number of grooves from roadhouse rock to Latin rhumba and still keep it in the vintage pocket with a solid ensemble sound and
Sons of the Pioneers harmonies that are a fine bonus on the acoustic-based "Close But So Far Away." If
Garth Brooks and
Shania Twain are supposed to represent all the progress country music has made from its older hillbilly beginnings,
Acres of Heartache turns the tables and honors those beginnings by celebrating them, warts and all. This is one great little album of hillbilly music. ~ Cub Koda