Listening to the opening notes of Alex Woodard's self-titled album one would never know that the recording was made by a San Diego surfer for it sounds as 'Nashville' as anything produced in Music City. Woodard's folksy lyrics are what immediately stand out above the country/rock, country-pop flavored lyrics. "Older" starts off the record and finds the thirtysomething Woodard thinking about how we all look back nostalgically on the past and then realizing the 'beautiful road' to getting older is better to look forward to. Y'know, it's better to live life than to romanticize the past. Sara Watkins, of Nickel Creek fame, and a fellow San Diego native, guests on the lonely ballad "Reno."
If you can imagine roots music instruments like the Dobro, fiddle, mandolin and banjo backing Tom Petty then you would have a good indication on what really drives "The Table" and "Mountain Town." Both have a roots rock aesthetic and lyrics stripped straight out of the heartland. "Halfway" has an anthem-like melody backing a Pat Greenish vocal from Alex Woodard. It's a spiritual song that says we should always try our hardest to get what we truly want out of life. "Beautiful Now" is basically a more mature version of "Don't You Know You're Beautiful" but instead of a female imparting the wisdom into scared children, Woodard has taken the angle of a boyfriend/husband saying "Have I told you how, You're beautiful now, you're a hot mom now." It's a song that's all about finding beauty in the ones we love and for what we do and not where people tell us it should be.
"In my time of dying, I hope I find the grace, to say I've made some beautiful mistakes, some will be the right ones, some will carry on, to weigh me down when all my hope is gone but it's all right now, it's all right now" Woodard starts "Heathen's Prayer" off with this and tells a story that helps sum up what is an album that was quite unexpected. Alex Woodard has crafted, along with his musical cohorts, a fine singer/songwriter album that will fall into the Americana genre quite nicely. Fans of heartland roots rock and Texas country will find something to like on the album, as will contemporary country music fans.
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