In their heyday,
Mötley Crüe stood so far apart from the Music City it wouldn't have come as a surprise that they never played Nashville but, as they say, strange times make strange bedfellows. In 2014, there's a generation of country singers raised on AOR rock and, more importantly, many of the teenage fans of the
Crüe now buy country instead of metal, so the time is right for Nashville Outlaws, a tribute record that captures the Venn diagram of where hair metal meets rocking country. Surprisingly, there's not much macho bluster here. A couple of the hardest tunes are given to bands known for their gentle touch -- the
Eli Young Band reworks "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" so it has a bit of a groove but not much grit, and
Rascal Flatts are given "Kickstart My Heart" -- while
Justin Moore diligently delivers a duet with
Vince Neil on "Home Sweet Home" and
Brantley Gilbert sings "Girls Girls Girls" as if he was still hungover from "Bottoms Up." Livelier is
Gretchen Wilson digging into "Wild Side" and
Big & Rich, who slow "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)" down but find a bit of a spark. The same can be said for
LeAnn Rimes, who turns "Smokin' in the Boys Room" into a backporch jam, an imaginative spin that touches on the blues roots of
Brownsville Station's original, but it's overshadowed by the wild, wonderful Tex-Mex revision of "Dr. Feelgood" by
the Mavericks.
Raul Malo and company hit a sweet spot for tribute albums: taking a beloved song and making it entirely their own.
The Mavericks sound like outlaws, but elsewhere on Nashville Outlaws, the acts either are cautious (
Darius Rucker's "Time for a Change") or sing with latter-day
Crüe material (
Aaron Lewis uses this to his advantage on "Afraid";
Florida Georgia Line less so on "If I Die Tomorrow"). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine