After 17 years of marriage, I wonder if Bruce Robison ever wakes up in the middle of the night, looks at his wife and thinks to himself, “Holy hell, that’s Kelly Willis”? I can’t see there ever being a time when a woman as stunningly beautiful as Kelly gets taken for granted. He must be in a constant state of amazement.
The thought came to mind during the Bruce and Kelly CD Release Show for Cheaters Game, Wednesday night at Joe’s Pub. Bruce isn’t a bad looking guy in his own right, he is big lad but he has a goofy unthreatening visage, and you can see why women would be drawn to him: he has a good mix of power and pussycat, they feel secure yet not scared. Bruce is also a great songwriter, something of a country journeyman who went from bands to solo career and three hit singles, covered to great success by everyone from Gary Allan to George Strait. During Wednesdays set he leaned heavily on the new album, a collaboration with his wife and a good one filled with original and cover songs that reflect their relationship (it is even better after hearing it in person) Kelly included some of her hits and Bruce added choice cuts from his 2009 Greatest Hits collection, the sort of stuff that remind you why you love country in the first place. Show me a set with songs as good as “Angry All The Time”, “What Would Willie Do”, “Me And My Brother” and I will show you Merle Haggard.
Flanked by Kelly, as well as Jeff Queens an excellent steel pedal and electric guitarist who is a wonder on his Les Paul and nails the solo on “Sweet Sundown” and bassist John Ludwig, who makes up for the lack of a drummer with steadfast anchorage. The band is a sleek, smooth machine, no drums, no piano, strings ahoy, and built to tour.
It's Bruce's band when Kelly let's him have it and he doesn’t swagger but he isn’t shy; when I mention how great his songs are he shrugs it off with a “I’ve been writing songs a long time”, but he is as aware as the audience is that you don’t get to hear songs this great every day. Although only 46 years old, Bruce has the skills of an old timer and he uses his skills in aid of well formed country songs. Even good country songwriters today, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, seem to write in quotations, there is the faint suggestion of irony about them, Bruce harkens back to Merle, Kristofferson, hell even Hank Williams. A song like “Angry All The Time”, a complete showstopper at Joe’s Pub with Kelly’s back up making it sting even more, is as good as a song can be. The emotions are complicated and precise and the lyric simple and clear. “The reasons I can’t stay have nothing to do with being in love” is poetry. It made the deep as ditch water Tim McGraw sound as though he has a soul on Tim's hit cover of it. And Bruce is even better.
Yeah, Bruce is amazing, but Kelly is breathtaking. One of the most beautiful women I’ve seen in my life, she looks every minute of her 44 years and yet is plainfully stunning. Her lips curve downwards, and her straight blonde hair is shapeless, the black dress plain, and after four children she is still rail thin. Also, unlike her husband, and unlike so many country stars, she isn’t quite friendly. I’ve got a feeling Bruce has his hands full. But she sings like an angel with the faintest on twangs and edge to the bottom, and she is mesmerizing, you can’t take your eyes off her, it is unreal.
Bruce came out of Bandera, Texas, with his brother and after a few bands settled into his career. At the age of 16, Kelly hooked up with her drummer boyfriend, joined his band, married him, divorced him and the band, and went solo just in time for the full flowering of new country,. Signed to a major label and without a Rodney Crowell to guide her, Kelly found herself being pushed as the look of MCA Country records, who gave a hard and not really smart sell for her first three wonderful albums. They didn’t sell (though Bang Bang remains one of my fave albums of the 1990s) and Kelly didn’t like how she was represented –oddly enough she may have been right, you know. Perhaps if she had looked more like Reba McIntyre, and been presented more like Loretta Lynn, she would have gotten better airplay and more respect in mainstream country. This was 1992, you know. It was still a strange mix of old and new.
At Joe’s Pub, if Kelly had come across warm and fluffy she would have stolen the show from under her husband’s nose, instead she seemed a little at odds with us. Blowing the lyric to an audience requested “What I Deserve”, she is hard in her officiating. While taking back the song, telling her husband to remind her of the words to the second chorus and then starting up from where she left off, she makes mincemeat of her husband claim that Kelly makes a blown lyric appealing. “That’s why I don’t do requests” she concludes and moves on.
The duo really do sing together often enough, and back each other up all the time, so it is a little difficult to conclude this is hers and that is his, so take this for what it's sworth: Kelly’s songs were all just about great in every way either way, “Heaven’s Just A Sin Away” was a barnstormer and the opening number off the new album, “9,999,999 Tears”, was a shot in the arm and “Border Radio” the second song , not the Blasters track, is a really great duet. “Cheater’s Game” itself, influenced by Kris Kristofferson according to Bruce, is Kelly’s tour de force and a thriller and the encore a thrilling “Harper Valley PTA” is so aggressive it has you asking questions about Kelly’s parenting!
At Joe’s Pub it came together very well. In an Austin Chronicle interview, they mentioned how the dynamic between brother and sister or husband and wife is different than other band members on stage. There is a history and a closeness between the couple. And watching Kelly watching her husband during his ode to his brother “My Brother And Me” or the inside jokiness of the self-evident “Wrapped”. Or a self-assured “Born To Roll” rockabilly rave up introduced with a self-aware “We leave the kids at home when we go on the road”, it is hard to deny as they share the closeness with us.
Am I biased? Yeah, of course I am. I’m in love with Kelly Willis. I doubt there was a guy there who wasn’t in love with her, not unlike Bruce we are all wrapped around her little finger. I have no idea how Bruce got together the nerve to speak to her all those years ago (they bonded over Roy Orbinson songs at a part) though I bet Tequila helped a lot. I didn't even have the nerve to get my CD signed despite buying a second copy at the gig for that sole purpose. None of this makes the Bruce And Kelly show any less good, it makes it even better. A thoroughly entertaining set by country pros introducing a very good album and having a lot of fun doing it, with a small but excellent band to help them along.
Grade: A
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