Hoyt Axton

By the time of this, his 13th and a relatively unlucky album, Hoyt Axton's talent was not always as strong a force as his own firm belief in the Axton legend: a genius songwriting artist with his own niche, not quite country, not quite rock, not quite pop. It is also the concept of "good old boy" charm that is wrapped around this album like yellow ribbons during a hostage crisis; it is something along the order of a Mac Davis vibe, and like the similarly well-tanned Davis, Axton comes across best when in a rowdy mode. His "Roll Your Own" is an in-your-face, unabashed pot song that would give a rasta a coughing fit, but there is equal time to drink in "Whisky," visit "Nashville," and get caught in a "Speed Trap." These titles all form an inner block inside the record when the listener may begin to feel like all is right with Axton's world -- he is cooking along and the God-squad philosophies of his earlier albums have happily vamoosed. Elsewhere on the album, however, is an excruciating version of "Greensleeves" and a flabby number called "Pride of Man" which unfortunately has led jumpy discographers to credit Axton with composing a different song with the same title by the Quicksilver Messenger Service. But while that "Pride of Man" was a highlight of the latter band's debut album, the Axton song is nothing to be proud of, like several numbers in this collection that seem like half-finished throwaways. Sometimes the songs themselves actually may have had the potential to come across much better than they do due to the party-hearty studio atmosphere, in which all manner of celebrity interface and networking seems to have been going on. Cheech & Chong make an appearance and so does television hunk David Hasselhoff. There is the warbling of Linda Ronstadt as well as that of Bob Lind, the one-hit wonder behind "Elusive Butterfly." The thoughtful Axton is on to some truths and gets his musicians into worthwhile grooves on a few less of the tracks than most listeners will find satisfactory. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide