Bentley's Bandstand
Everyone needs a second chance. Especially someone as inspired as Adam Hood. He originally released this album in 2007, and though it gathered fair notice in some circles, unfortunately it slipped out of sight far too quickly--through no fault of its own. The Alabama man is dipped in the goods, his voice suitably sun-baked and small-town cured. It sounds like he's been hanging out behind the barn, and when that got boring he headed for the wrong side of the tracks and found just what he was looking for right where a good singer needs to spend serious time. There is no way to learn this kind of singing. It needs to be born into you, and from there a whole series of happy accidents needs to happen for the musical results to turn out right. For Adam Hood, they did. Producer Pete Anderson came across Hood in a bar below the Mason-Dixon line and took him into a Southern California studio to capture this Southern magic. The vocals zoom straight to the heart, and the session players are such pros there is not a wasted note or feeling to be found on the whole album. Songs like "22 Days Too Long," "Late Night Diner" and "Whole Town Talking" portray an America we can all be proud of, hard knocks and all. And for this new edition of Different Groove, three acoustic versions are included, to show even stripped-down, Adam Hood is a long-haul talent, and getting started again is his good fortune and ours as well. This man needs to be heard no matter how many times it takes.
