Album Review: Tim Hicks, Campfire Troubadour

Presented, as billed, as an aural snapshot of a dude leading a bunch of friends through fire-pit singalongs with beers in hand and guitars at the ready, country star Tim Hicks’ seven-song Campfire Troubadour is custom-made for socially distanced summertime consumption. There’s even the sound of crackling flames and chirping crickets scattered throughout to reinforce the mood.

While this backyard party conceit is nifty, what really floats the collection’s boat is its campfire-worthy emphasis on storytelling at which Hicks excels with vivid lyrics: “Drop-dead legs in a little black dress, pink lipstick on cigarettes, only get two nights a week, to blow off all the steam,” in “The Good, The Bad & The Pretty (Campfire Version).” 

Elsewhere, “Horses and Hearts” sounds musically like a Hicks-ified spin on Eagles’ “Lyin Eyes” albeit with better visuals and a whiff of altruism (“Horses and hearts they ain’t made to be broken, they should be running wide open against the wind, can’t fence ‘em in”). 

Nothing on Campfire Troubadour feels especially ground-breaking but it sure goes down easy, including a rousing and surprisingly faithful reading of Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger” which incorporates banjo in a way that even cranky old Noel Gallagher would enjoy, though perhaps not as much as “Last Can,” a tearful/winking ode to the coveted final item in the night’s stash. Now there’s a track to toast marshmallows to!

Campfire Troubadour was released May 21, 2021 via Open Road Recordings.
Listen to it here.