ELEVEN HUNDRED SPRINGS
Midway
www.elevenhundredsprings.com
With the release of Midway, their ninth record in 14 years, Eleven Hundred Springs has once again made an album full of two-steppin’, skirt twirlin’, honky-tonkin’, real country music — real because Matt Hillyer has that much-sought-after gift of writing songs about real people with real problems, real love, and real lives. He sings “Someplace Else to Be” from the perspective of a couple going through hard times after 15 years of marriage, and “Afghanistan” from that of a young soldier combatting fear and loneliness. Two of the best songs on the album are classic country at its best. Fans will hear a strong Merle Haggard influence in “Hard Working Just Ain’t Hard Working Anymore” and the simply produced, slow waltz, “It Was Only,” a beautiful, “you saved me from myself” love song. But what makes Eleven Hundred Springs so much more than another Saturday night Haggard and Jones tribute band is the energy from Hillyer, fiddle player Jordan Hendrix and Steve Berg on upright bass. They have consistently delivered songs you can’t help but get up and dance to, and Midway continues the tradition with such fast-paced, swinging staples of their sound as “I’m an S.O.B. (When I’m S.O.B.E.R)” and “There Ain’t Enough Hours in the Day.” Fans of the band will not be disappointed, and those new to Eleven Hundred Springs will definitely be looking for a live show nearby to hear these songs where they were meant to be heard — on a hardwood dance floor. — JODI TIDWELL
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