Based in Austin, Terry Klein recorded his third album, Good Luck, Take Care, in Nashville, having struck up a deal with producer Thomm Jutz to record an album in four days. It’s fair to say that in this short period the pair of them have crafted a gem of an album. One which immediately grabs you and begs to be listened to again and again.
Klein is a songwriter in the grand tradition of Guy Clark and his songs here are delivered in a variety of styles ranging from dusty ballads to low riding bluesy rock. Indeed, the album opens with the terrific Sixty In A Seventy Five, a slow growl which recalls the louché swing of Ramsay Midwood’s Shootout At The OK Chinese Restaurant. It’s somewhat autobiographical as Klein describes having a panic attack at a gig and using Townes Van Zandt’s voice to chill him out on the trepidatious drive home. The intriguingly named Does A Fish Feel The Knife is another bluesy slink, this time with barbed acoustic and electric slide guitars. A metaphysical song of sorts, it grew from a question posed by Klein’s four-year-old daughter as he prepared a barbeque, a fine example of how he grabs such moments and turns them into great songs. The Woman Who Was Lost In The Flood, a dramatic ballad with sweeping strings and grim bursts of guitar, was again sparked by an incident when Klein’s kid, along with her class on a school outing, was menaced by a flood.
There is sparkling country rock on Such A Town, Klein’s ambivalent take on Boston , gangsters and all, and Salinas is a full blown rock blow out which comes across as if John Steinbeck had written it and The Drive By Truckers played it. Honestly, listen for yourself. Much more intimate is The Goldfinch, Klein’s report of a visit to The Hague to see the titular painting having read Donna Tartt’s novel. Again, he transforms a routine experience into a quite moving song. Much more upbeat is The Ballad Of Dick Trickle, a bluegrass like tribute to a once famous hot rod racer.
Two brilliant songs weigh in at the end. Cheryl just shimmers with an almost weeping pedal steel throughout as Klein relates the sad end to a naive kid’s romance with a gangster related beauty. The refrain, “The thrill of catching lightning in a bottle/Ends in ashes and a black mark on the ground” is chilling. What You Lose Along The Way, the closing song, is a talking blues of sorts with Klein freewheeling and reminiscing. Kind of wishing he was still young and yet accepting that he’s kind of glad he’s not. A fine way to end what is a glorious album. Check it out.