Live from Robert's Western Wor

Shine up your boots and get that hair slicked back because Live from Robert's Western Wear is the next best thing to a trip to the honky tonks of lower Broadway. BR5-49 was the prime mover behind the revitalization of Nashville's live country music scene, and this album documents the joyous mess that is their live show, complete with ambient yee-has and the band glad-handing the crowd for tips. Lest numbers like "Me 'n' Opie" have you thinking that the band is all about kitsch, check out their cover of the Louvins' bloodthirsty ballad "Knoxville Girl." Well, actually, it's a traditional number, but the Louvin Brothers made it famous, and the band does a dandy, Louvin-like job with the song's eerie soaring harmonies. Live at Robert's is a rip-roaring three-day bender of an album: sometimes sloppy, never especially original, but always a heck of a lot of fun. --Mary Park