By Scott Sexton

Five Country Stars Central Guitars

Gene Watson’s voice is better now than it has ever been.  He is able to bend notes and sing the truth with more ease than anyone in Country Music.  Gene proves it is cool to have a fiddle and steel in his music, while offering more twang than a honky tonk can handle.  His latest release, “Taste Of The Truth” offers every listener a chance to hear good ole Country Music any time they want to.

Kicking this record off is a track called, “Speakin’ Of The Angel.”  Without hearing anything else on this album, it leaves one question.  If the whole album is this good, why hasn’t the rest of the world heard it?  You know how when someone walks in the room and you were just talking about them, someone will say, “speaking of the devil?”  Well, if you do, then you know what the song is about, just with a different word from a different place.  It is fantastic. 

The title track starts off with an awesome piano leading the way.  When Gene starts singing, it is almost breathtaking.  It is about a man who is going through a breakup and he can’t seem to let things go.  He keeps thinking that everything will work out until it finally hits him.  The fiddle and the steel truly wrap up the entire package on this track.

Gene teams up with Trace Adkins on a more modern sounding tune called “We’ve Got A Pulse.”  It starts off a little more contempary, but once it gets going, you realize it still has the classic appeal to it as well.  In this time and day, classic Country Music is almost unheard of on mainstream radio.  Some people even say it is dead.  Well, Gene and Trace have went the extra mile to prove that as long as they are alive, Country Music will be too.  Hopefully Gene will start singing this at every one of his live shows.  It deserves to be heard.

Slowing things back down is a tune called “Til A Better Memory Comes Along.”  Gene had a higher power looking over him when he found this song.  Every word cuts like a knife and it had to have been written with him in mind.  It is his style of lyrics and by the end, you feel like you are the person this song is about.  Outstanding is the only way to describe it.  Simply unforgettable.

“It’s My Lie” sort of has the old “honky tonk” sound that Gene is known for.  It is really good and once you hear it, you will probably agree that too many of us have a story we like others to believe that may not be one hundred percent correct.  Gene brings this fact to life with ease and a neat sense of humor.

The first single to be released on this record is called “Staying Together” with Rhonda Vincent.  Oh, the things that can be said about this song are endless.  It proves that sometimes when people are in a relationship, they come to a spot where it is pointless to remain together, but they still do for the kids and their family.  As soon as this song came across the speakers, everything else will be irrelevant.  This song was the only thing that mattered until it had been played at least ten times.  Rhonda’s voice blended perfectly with Gene’s.  They are a vocal match made in heaven.  Hopefully we will be hearing a lot more from them again in the future.

“Three Minutes At A Time” and “Wrong Way To Find Mr. Right” are both two very good songs, but you have to hear “Use Me Again.”  It is about a man who isn’t exactly in the most honorable relationship.  He is seeing a married woman and when she goes to leave, she starts telling him all sorts of things.  Well, the man lets her know that this is a simple affair and not to mess it up.  Hearing this song will have you shaking your head and loving the fact that this great music is still alive and well in Gene Watson.

If there is one song on this record that doesn’t stand out like the rest of them, it would have to be “Still They Call Me Love.”  It is a good song and the music is dynamite.  It is just the lyrics are not the same gut-wrenching words that each of the other songs consist of.  This by no means shortens the record or it magnitude.  Be your own judge on this one.

Bringing this record to an end is a track called, “I Know My Ending.”  It was the perfect way for Gene to wrap this whole project up.  Sometimes people can’t admit that a good thing is coming to an end.  They over look things, stop paying attention, and become oblivious to the things around them.  Well, this song proves that some people can see the writing on the wall.  There are not enough great things to say about this album.  It is pure Country Music and is full of great lyrics and musical arrangements that deserve to be heard by the world.  This is a "Taste Of The Truth" and should get him pushed on into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Track List:

1. Speakin’ Of The Angel

2. Taste Of The Truth

3. We’ve Got A Pulse (With Trace Adkins)

4. Til A Better Memory Comes Along

5. It’s My Lie

6. Staying Together (With Rhonda Vincent)

7. Three Minutes At A Time

8. Wrong Way To Find Mr. Right

9. Use Me Again

10. Still They Call Me Love

11. I Know My Ending