Saturday, December 1, 2018

Album Review: Lucky Man

Texas Songwriter Craig Langford a Lucky Man
A review by Billy Bob Hill of Craig's 2017 CD release, Lucky Man 

Craig Langford, a native Texan, has played in the bands of such renowned artists as Trisha Yearwood and Emma Lou Harris. His recent CD Lucky Man offers sixteen songs, all with very different arrangements.

The words of the first song, “Emma Lou Harris,” describes the superstar being more than an angel’s voice. She’s also a good person, whom he admires. 

In “Red Dirt Road,” the music nicely carries the story. A man and woman look for their dreams by moving to the city, only to return to the red loam of a Texas farm. The end rhymes cause the listener to smile:

They got married by the old JP
Took their place on the family tree
Settled down and raised me
In that Red Dirt Town

The angry “Woman on the Warpath,” is convincingly performed by Tammy Pierce. I liked the jazzy piano on “Come to Me” with Raquel Wynne singing.

Tami Neff and Langford vocalize together on “All the Love.” I’m curious why he didn’t sing duets with Tammy Pierce and Raquel Wynne.

To hear the music, why not see the singer? Langford performs his likable “Christmas in Texas” on this YouTube video. https://wwwyoutube.com/watch?u=Bc6jKmUYQO
There’s also a site on YouTube with ten songs by him off google.

Langford’s voice and lyrics, along with the instrumentation, best interplay in “Sailing Alone.” 

When sailing alone
You’re going to be lonely,
When sailing alone,
Oh, you’re not really free,
You’re out on the ocean
Sailing alone
Wouldn’t you rather be sailing with me?

I believe that among the sixteen cuts, “Sailing Alone” most deserves to become a hit.

The title song, “Lucky Man,” with its first-person lyrics, ends the collection.

But hey, I’m only a critic, and there’s certainly the possibility I didn’t pick the tune that would be your favorite.


Besides finding Lucky Man online, you can listen to Craig Langford by way of iTunes and Spotify.


Billy Bob Hill, an English teacher, is the editor of the TCU Press anthology, A Student’s Treasury of Texas Verse. Another one of Hill’s anthologies, Texas in Poetry, is mentioned toward the end of Don Graham’s entry “Literature” in Handbook of Texas https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kzl01

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