Underrated country vocalists are all too common, but Gene Watson has always been the kind of country singer you wish more people could hear — the Texas native and one-time auto-body repairman boasts a sweet tenor voice that never descends into sentimentality. Such immaculate hits as “Fourteen Carat Mind” and “Love in the Hot Afternoon” sound great today, and last year’s full-length with fellow underrated singer Rhonda Vincent,
Your Money and My Good Looks, proved Watson’s versatility.
Your Money contained a fine cover of Tom Jans and Jeff Barry’s “Out of Hand” — a 1975 Gary Stewart smash — but Watson’s old hits are so good that he recently re-recorded them on his new
Best of the Best: 25 Greatest Hits. Rounding out the bill is Jimbo Mathus and his Tri-State Coalition, who turned Southern rock on its ear on last year’s fine full-length
Confederate Buddha.
— Edd Hurt