Live at Billy Bob's Texas

by Mark Wills

Overview

One of several castaways from the moribund "hat act" scene of mid-'90s Nashville to find himself on this small country indie label, Mark Wills starts his post majors career with a no-frills live album that perhaps unintentionally shows exactly what went wrong with mainstream country music at the end of the millennium. There's more audible enthusiasm in Wills' vocals in the first minute of the wry opener "And the Crowd Goes Wild" than there was on the entire album of the same name that was Wills' Mercury swan song. Similarly, the arrangements are fundamentally the same as they were on Wills' earlier albums, with lots of rocking rhythm guitar lines underneath the twangy country leads, but unlike the pristine separation of the ultra-clean studio records, there are some rough edges. (The drummer's not playing to a click track, either, which helps a ton right there.) Wills is an affable Everyman of a singer with a little Alan Jackson in his vocal style, and his songs rarely rise above "catchy and hummable," so he was never going to be a country superstar on the Garth Brooks level, but this thoroughly enjoyable live record shows that he's a much more entertaining act than his previous albums had revealed. That's not his fault; it's the fault of the label folks who tend to stifle their artists into cookie-cutter conformity. ~ Stewart Mason

Product Details

Release Date:	06/28/2005
Label:	Smith Entertainment
UPC:	0662582503623
Rank:	139427

Tracks

1. And the Crowd Goes Wild
2. Jacob's Ladder
3. I Do (Cherish You)
4. High Low and in Between
5. She's in Love
6. Wish You Were Here
7. Everything There Is to Know About You
8. Places I've Never Been
9. How Bad Do You Want It
10. When You Think of Me
11. Loving Every Minute
12. He's a Cowboy
13. Singer in the Band
14. Don't Laugh at Me
15. Back to One
16. 19 Somethin'

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mark Wills   Primary Artist,Guitar (Acoustic),Vocals
Mike Ulvila   Fiddle,Mandolin,Guitar
Craig Mattox   Vocals,Piano
Terry Palmer   Guitar,Vocals
Harrell (Dink) Cook   Vocals,Guitar (Bass)
John Singer   Drums,Drums
Tom Bass   Guitar
Tommy Bass   Guitar

Technical Credits

Mark Nesler   Composer
Bob Wright   Remixing,Engineer,Producer
Randal Vanderveer   Photography
Billy Minick   Executive Producer
V.R. "Bear" Crossnoe   Production Coordination
Phil Barnett   Mastering
Alain DuBois   Composer
Ricky Smith Jr.   Executive Producer
Randy Cole   Engineer
Mel Eubanks   Engineer