I’ve long held the thought that country music would do well to have a band or artist that mixes country lyrics with fun hard-rocking melodies of Skynyrd and AC/DC and for a while thought that that band was going to be Big & Rich or Van Zandt or even Chris Cagle but somehow, someway all three acts have seemingly gone the way of the dodo (at radio at least).  So, while I heard some of these elements on The Road Hammer’s debut album “Blood, Sweat & Steel,” they really have come to the forefront with the release of their sophomore album “The Roadhammers II.” 

The album leads off with “Homegrown,” a song that would make Willie Nelson proud as it’s an ode to relaxing at home after a long week of work with nothing but his lovely lady and some “Homegrown.”  “Getting’ Screwed” is a song that any hard-workin’ blue collar person will relate to with it’s raucous good-time melody backing up the workmanlike lyric.   Three of this albums songs appared on “Blood, Sweat & Steel” and while it may not make sense to those of us in America that they’d be reprised on “Roadhammers II,” the fact of the matter is that The Roadhammers are a Canadian band that released the original Roadhammers album in 2005 without “I Don’t Know When To Quit,” “I’ve Got The Scars To Prove It” and “Workin’ Hard At Lovin’ You.”   “Quit” and “Scars” were both hugely successful singles in Canada while being moderately popular Top 50 hits in the USA. 

“Cowboy ‘Til I Die” and Jeffrey Steele’s “Freewheelin’” both up the hillbilly rock quotient and help keep the party mood of “Roadhammers II.” In fact, the closest thing to a ballad is the heartland rocker “Goodbye Dust,” a song The Roadhammers (Clayton Bellamy, Chris Byrne and Jason McCoy) wrote with Willie Mack.  It has huge sing-a-long chorus to it.  While the remake of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” fits with the mood of the album, it would’ve been great to not have this track at all as Denver’s own version still is pretty damn good not to mention Billy Dean’s 2003 hit remake of it.  Still, at the end of the day “Roadhammers II,” while not a ‘game changer, is certainly a fun, party-ready album. 

To buy this album click here.