Arizona Hotel by Hacienda Brothers (CD, Jun-2008, Propar Records)

Vocalist, songwriter and group co-founder Chris Gaffney’s passing in April 2008 can’t help but retint this third studio album as a memorial to the group’s fallen leader. And while there are plenty of sad songs here, and some lyrics that eerily presage Gaffney’s departure, the album is filled with life, particularly in Gaffney’s singing. The group once again worked with Muscle Shoals songwriting and producing legend Dan Penn, but with his input limited to five tracks, there’s a stronger honky-tonk vibe here than the country-soul heard on 2006’s “What’s Wrong With Right.” The group’s co-leader, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Gonzalez, picks tasteful twangy leads, David Berzansky bends the strings of his pedal steel, and the band’s rhythm section (Hank Maninger on bass and Dale Daniel on drums) count off two-steps, shuffles and Western swings with enthusiasm. On top of it all, Gaffney’s rough-edged, occasionally wavery vocals are packed with emotion.

The album opens with Gaffney and Gonzalez trading the wistful verses of “A Lot of Days Are Gone,” rummaging through the memories of a faded love and sounding like the early, haunted work of Merle Haggard as they pine. With Gaffney’s passing, the line “Back when it was yesterday, the future seemed so far away, and there was always time, but now it’s slipped away” throws a particularly dark shadow. Connie Smith’s “I’ll Come Running” is given a bouncy Bakersfield treatment, with Gonzalez chicken-picking alongside Berzansky’s twangy steel and Gaffney warbling along to his own harmony vocals. The Bakersfield vibe, by way of The Derailers and Gosdin Brothers, pops up again in the goodbyes of “Big Town City,” with more terrific picking by Gonzalez and Berzansky.

Gaffney’s accordion, Gonzalez hard-picked nylon string guitar, and a trailside beat turn “Uncle Sam’s Jail” into a Western. Though written about Gaffney’s military experience, the song broadly illuminates the plights of the underclasses with the lyrics, “Most of us are losing while the rich folks run the game, doing life without parole, in Uncle Sam’s jail.” The album’s sole instrumental, “Light it Again Charlie” provides Gonzalez a chance to show off his blues chops, and keening steel and baritone guitar provide the instrumental touchstones on which Gaffney hangs his passion for the country ballad, “I Still Believe.” Gaffney turns to crooning for a shuffle arrangement of Hank Williams’ “When You’re Tired of Breaking Other Hearts,” and adds vocal runs on a cover of George Jones’ “Divorce or Destroy.”

The band returns to country-soul for the Dan Penn co-writes “Ordinary Fool” and “Use to the Pain.” The former is a superb, languid ballad, while the latter is edged in the gospel sounds of Joe Terry’s piano and organ. The gospel fervor returns on the joyful “Soul Mountain,” with a coda that could spark a church revival. As on many of the album’s songs, lyrics ostensibly detailing the pain of lost love take on additional layers of meaning with the retrospection of Gaffney’s passing. The album closes with the original “Break Free” whose lyrics of self-realization could also be taken as a vision for the hereafter. The Hacienda Brothers latest finds them deeply settled into the pocket of their hybrid style, true to both their country and soul roots, and closes the book on this once-in-a-lifetime vehicle for both Gaffney and Gonzalez. [©2008 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]