Crusades Of The Restless Knights

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Ray Wylie Hubbard: Crusades of the Restless Knight, (Philo 1218) Released 01/01/1999 "With his faded jeans and scruffy beard, Texas songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is like Dante Alighieri disguised as Willie Nelson. Crusades of the Restless Knights is an album full of spiritual references -- not just to the devil but also to ghost, angel, baptism, crosse, dead poet, femme fatales and untrustworthy Bible salesmen. And over the course of the ten song, Ray pulls off something that is very rarely done -- he sings of spiritual matters without becoming cynical, reactionary, sentimental or otherwise humorle. It's the best album he's ever made" --Geoffrey Hime, from his liner notes "The possessor of a voice and a poetic eye both seasoned by time and hard knock, coupled with solid folk country and rock instinct, Hubbard seems at the height of his creative power. At long last, he stands poised to take his place alongside such between-the-cracks Lone Star artists as Steve Earle and Joe Ely." John T. Davis Austin, Texas The Credits Produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard & Lloyd Maines Ray Wylie Hubbard Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Slide Guitar, Stephen Bruton Mandolin, Electric Guitar, Guitar (Baritone) Troy Campbell Background Vocals Patty Griffin Background Vocal, Harmony Vocals Lloyd Maines Acoustic Guitar, Dobro, Pedal Steel Guitar, Steel Guitar, Background Vocals Paul Pearcy Percussion, Drum, Tambourine, Cardboard Box Glenn Fukunaga Ba, Electric Ba, Bass Guitar, Upright Bass Terry Ware Electric Guitar Terri Hendrix Acoustic Guitar, Vocal, Background Vocals Eamon McLoughlin Fiddle, Violin Lisa Mednick Accordion, Background Vocals Recorded at Cedar Creek Studio, Austin, Texa. The Songs 1 Crows 04:52 2 There Are Some Days 05:08 3 The Lovers in Your Dreams 04:31 4 Conversation with the Devil 05:06 5 Red Dress 03:39 6 The River Bed 03:55 7 This River Runs Red 05:17 8 After the Harvest 04:03 9 Airplane Fell Down in Dixie 03:47 10 The Messenger 04:00 #1 Choice in Top 10 CD's of 1999 Listener Picks - KPFT 90.1FM Radio - Houston, TX 1999 Critics Choice Top CD's" (Country) - The Denver Post 1999 Song of the Year - Conversations With The Devil - Austin Amp Awards (Austin Music Pundits) Top 100 Editors' Picks List for 1999 - Amazon.com Top 10 List Best Country CDs 1999 - Amazon.com - Country Editor Marc Greilsamer Top 10 List Best Folk CD's 1999 - Amazon.com - Folk Editor Steve Stolder REVIEWS Ray Wylie Hubbard's Crusades of the Restless Knights (Philo) cements his position as the current king of Texas folk poet. Dave Marsh – PLAYBOY "...a gem of an album that looks through a glass darkly at all matters spiritual....Feel the heat." Entertainment Weekly "...arguably among his finest to date...still down to earth in true Ray Wylie fashion..." Dirty Linen Ray Wylie Hubbard, “Crusades of the Restless Knights” (Philo): Hubbard reaches a new musical high. Sublime lyric, driving instrumentals and emotional vocals make this one of the best releases of the decade. Much of the writing takes your breath away, regardless of the subject Hubbard is addressing. In “There Are Some Day,” Hubbard writes beautifully about regret. Love is the subject of “the Lovers in Your Dream.” “The Messenger” offers Hubbard’s take On the book “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke. And life’s absurdity is humorously Shown in “Conversation With the Devil,” which relates a dream Hubbard had about being in hell. Hubbard sings each song with confidence, hitting the right tone emotionally and musically. The Denver Post- Top CDs of ’99 Sunday, January 2, 2000 A Portrait of Sin & Redemption Ray Wylie Hubbard – Crusades Of The Restless Knights (Philo/Rounder) There's no room for grizzled old poets in Nashville, just pretty boys in tight jeans and cowboy hat, vacant stares not at all concealing blank slate. Ray Wylie Hubbard, on the other hand, looks like an old book; his face lined with experience, his songs vivid pages illustrated with great craftsmanship, tales sharing the beauty of life in all of its ups and down. Crusades Of The Restless Knights is the kind of album that only a survivor could make, somebody with a few miles under their belt, more than a few scars on both their bodies and their souls and the musical vocabulary to share it with the listener. A long-time fixture on a Texas music scene that includes fellow talents like Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker and the late Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard is best known, perhap, for his wild reckless ways and unshakeable status as one of the founders of the seventies cosmic cowboy scene. In his heart, however, Hubbard is a folk singer, a teller of tales and at its root, Crusades Of The Restless Knights is a spiritual journey both lyrically and musically. In songs peopled with angels and demon, saints and criminal, star-crossed lovers and broken heroe, Hubbard has created a not-so-gentile Faulkner South, weaving wonderful stories from the fabric of his experience and insightful observation. Many of the tales on Crusades Of The Restless Knight, songs like “This River Runs Red” concern themselves with the choices people make in this life, offering a world where you're either saved or a sinner and there's a fine line between the two. “There Are Some Ways” is as much about the pain of growing older as it is about the regrets of no longer being young. Hubbard is not an altogether somber wordsmith, however, as proven by the side-splitting, knee-slapping religious commentary of “Conversation With The Devil.” A classic talking blues with acoustic accompaniment that was inspired by an actual dream, the song cleverly tars abusive parent, right-wing Christians and Nashville record execs with the brush of damnation. The song revisits the fiddle contest in Charlie Daniels' classic “Devil Went Down To Georgia” before closing with the inspired lines “some get spiritual cause they see the light/and some cause they feel the heat.” Aside from its underlying themes of hope and redemption, Crusades Of The Restless Knights also honors those who have already gone to their judgement. “Airplane Fell Down In Dixie” pays homage to the fallen members of Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd while “The Messenger,” from an earlier Hubbard album, is amended here as a tribute to fellow Texan Townes Van Zandt, with beautiful backing vocals from Patty Griffin. Echoing, perhap, Hubbard's own artistic redemption, “The Messenger” closes the album with the ultimate statement of hope: “I just want to see what's next.” Filled with vivid imagery, masterfully painted characters and intelligent, literary lyric, Crusades Of The Restless Knights is everything a country album should be, Hubbard the kind of artist that Nashville labels should be signing. Too raw, too honest and too talented for “Music Row,” Hubbard remains a country outsider creating art that rises above commerce, music that looks to the future while paying heavy dues to the ghosts of the past. One of the year's best efforts and a timeless collection of song, I'd heartily recommend Crusades Of The Restless Knights to any music lover who values craft and skill above style and trend. Rev. Keith A. Gordon 1999 www.cdnow.com .

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