I love discovering new artists, it’s like a drug for me, if I find out about them that they have interesting stories to tell behind them, here it becomes clear: I have to write about them. I discovered Isaac Hoskins as always: through a social group of independent music fans like me. With his Bender it was love at first listening, but his story made me exclaim: it’s him! the new article was already taking shape in my head. The story of this native of Oklahoma, but raised musically in Texas is the story of a bartender, a construction worker, a truck driver and working on a ranch, the story of a man who decided that songwriting would pay his bills, but that in 2020 he really thought it was all over with his life of concerts and concerts. After having reached the bottom and after a reflection of 3 days alone in the desert, Isaac makes the decision to stop drinking and begins to write songs that will tell his experiences, darkness and beautiful things and that will be the 10 pieces of this beautiful record. The incredible part of his story, however, is not all here, indeed! Life is also made up of meetings or decisions that change it forever sometimes: luck, destiny, chance… call it what you call it. Here, for Hoskins this fortune knocked on the door one night in 2019 when he was performing at the Mercury Motor Lounge in Fort Worth, Texas, opening for another artist. While he was playing, he says, he noticed a couple entering the club that stood out from the rest of the audience, beauty, character, magical aura, something he could not explain, but that made him say to himself: “and who are those?”. After his set is over and he forgets what happened, as he is heading outside to smoke a cigarette and relax, he is approached by a woman who tells him that Taylor Sheridan would like to meet him and compliment him. A name that tells him something, but he can’t remember what it is. So while he’s smoking, he googles his name and…bam! Not only known for being deputy sheriff David Hale in Sons of Anarchy, but creator and deus ex machina of Yellowstone, the most acclaimed TV series of recent years and that is famous for making known to the general public independent artists who hit them (in short, the work that mainstream radio should do if they were not occupied in other, ed). A meeting that will lead them to become friends, Sheridan will hire Isaac to play at events, parties, rodeos, until you get to the story I told you about at the beginning and that is the new record. Hoskins sent Sheridan the new album that remained enthusiastic and decided to include two songs in the series. The incredible part of this life-changing meeting is that Sheridan and his wife Nicole Muirbrook had the wrong club. They were looking for another place where they had an appointment, but Sheridan impressed with Hoskins‘ music had decided to stay. Now Hoskins continues his made life live in small clubs that allow him to support his family, of course he hopes, and I with him, that the series will help him make the proverbial bang, as already happened to other talented artists appeared in the most coveted soundtrack in the history of television. He really deserves it. Now to the important part: music. Isaac Hoskins recorded his third album at The Finishing School in Austin, Texas with Gordy Quist, a musician from the Texas band The Band of Heatens. Just Quist hires a band of the highest level for recordings and you will hear it in these 10 pieces of country-tinged street rock, as in the 70s where those who played this kind of music was called outlaw. His songs speak to simple people, workers, cowboys in jeans and dusty hats, there are no spangles or prizes to collect at the end of the day. Just press play and part H-Town Turnaround and the speakers are flooded with country music with a rock character, Geoff Queen’s guitar is dirty, it’s dusty country and Hoskins‘ voice is full, powerful, intense. That’s what country is all about and the song was the one that convinced me not to leave this record. Solos are then the icing on this cake with a 70’s flavor. Back to the Saltmine is a delicious honky-tonk, a vintage flavor that you love and its stories are true and hard life. The work of the supporting band is exceptional, the intertwining of guitar and fiddle by Noah Jeffries is beautiful. There are no pieces that tire, beautiful and cinematic Panhandle Wind, with a rock soul, that rock you would listen in a convertible whizzing along an immense american highway, My Memory with its melancholy soul, where Geoff Queen’s pedal-steel paints sounds from the country’s glorious past. Isaac Hoskins‘ voice is so expressive and exciting, he goes from rock to ballad with the same intensity and then enriches the next Harder Than The Blues, where the choirs, pedal-steel and guitar accompany us in this piece so damn vintage, but also modern. You dance melancholy on the boards of a dusty saloon lost in the Panhandle. The solo of fiddle and pedal-steel is pure emotion, like when the Highwaymen were on earth. The Pistol and the Prayer is a modern western piece, almost epic. The guitars, the voice, the dust that wraps everything. Also beautiful text, touching and exciting. What beautiful friends! Little masterpiece that will not leave soon the speakers of my stereo. Off The Wagon is fun and wild, a honky tonk that you can listen in Yellowstone, never banal, another piece enriched by a band really level. Fiddle solos, guitars, keyboards and violin that intertwine and make you dance, go wild on the boards of that dusty saloon and applaud a great artist. A really fun and exciting album, a modern journey into the country of the 70s, enhanced by great musicians and a beautiful voice that interpret songs of a great songwriter. Trust Taylor Sheridan once again and let yourself be won over by an independent artist who deserves to be known and who surely Yellowstone will help in his deserved success.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(you can find original italian article at this link: https://www.ticinonotizie.it/isaac-hoskins-bender-2022-by-trex-roads/ )
