One grandfather went to school with Hank Williams. The other was mixed up with Buddy Holly and the Crickets. And in a meld of Merle Haggard's love of the blue collar, David Alan Coe's whacked out jailbirdery, and Billy Joe Shaver's outlawisms—with Johnny Paycheck sprinkled around the edges—and you have a rough idea about the grandson, Paul Cauthen. (Oh, and his voice which he modestly refers to as "Big Velvet'' sounds a lot like Waylon Jennings.) But Cauthen, who has lived much of the wreck and ruin he sings about, is a throwback, not a mere copycat. After becoming famous on the back of a tune called, "Cocaine Country Dancing," he now says he's cleaned up, settled down and is finding more humor in life or what he terms the "schmoozie bougie brouhaha." It's in that context that he's now released Country Coming Down though one suspects he really wanted to name this album after opening track "Country as Fuck." Set to a razor-edged electric guitar, with his vocals made echoey from reverb, the song features Cauthen leaning into lines like "Hot dog holly golly dagnabbit damn son/ If I don't catch a check I'ma sell my wife's gun." Or this unforgettable verse: "NASCAR, dive bar, fireworks, guitar/ Riding mower, landowner, '83 Texoma/ I was driving tractors before it got sexy/ Real cowboys don't rock to Kenny Chesney." Despite his flashy outfits, cowboy hat and veneer of a simple soul who just wants to find peace in the country, Cauthen is a rocker who is cleverly using his outlaw persona to separate himself from the rest of the Americana masses. Country Coming Down (whose title nods towards Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down") was made with frequent Cauthen collaborators Beau Bedford (Texas Gentlemen) and Jason Burt (Medicine Man Revival) at Modern Electric Sound Recorders in Dallas, Texas, with additional recording and mixing done in Nashville and Fort Worth, TX. The sound, not surprisingly, is full-bodied, volume hungry and way in-your-face. "Country Clubbin'," which opens with slowed down tape and features a snarly electronic guitar effect that sounds like a keyboard, shows that Cauthen knows how to build a studio album. "Champagne & a Limo" bounces along with twinkly guitar effects, more electronic snarls, and occasional heavier rock breakdowns. Rock guitar also dominates "Fuck You Money," which belies Cauthen's obvious goal. The songwriting leans towards finding a chord progression, repeating it, and then just stopping; the sameness gets old quickly. Arrangements are rudimentary at best but the energy saves the day, along with "Till the Day I Die," a ballad pulsing with electric sounds, where Cauthen serenades his wife and tackles a subject other than raising hell. © Robert Baird/Qobuz