Album Review – John Baumann’s “Proving Grounds”
One of the reasons Texas country is outpacing Nashville at the moment from both the level of quality and infectiousness in the music is because of the latitude Texas artists are afforded to explore their influences and develop a sound that’s all of their own. You might think that Music Row labels will release just about any damn thing and call it country, but it still must adhere to a dedicated formula for what they know will sell, and artists are given little to no leeway when it comes to expressing themselves outside the norms.
Sometimes the Americana world is not much better in how sometimes artists aren’t allowed to let loose with their more rowdy side, and are supposed to be serious and heartfelt all of the time. In Texas country, you can get a little unhinged and release a drinking song, and then turn right back around and hit the audience with some serious singer-songwriter material, and nobody in the audience will bat an eyelash. In fact in some ways, that’s what’s expected of you. There’s always been the easy-on-the-ears element to Texas music, but the level of songwriting has upped its game so dramatically in recent years, you better be able to bring the gut punches when the party’s over.
Both sides of Texas country are well-represented in upcoming artist John Baumann’s third official release, Proving Grounds. You don’t have to go digging for a bio on Baumann to find out what he’s all about, it’s all articulated right there in his songs. Hailing from all over Texas, including San Antonio, Lubbock, Amarillo, and now Austin, he speaks from the experience of growing up with the music in the album’s opening track, “Here I Come” about being inspired by those flatland legends like Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Joe Ely, and looking at the photos at Floore’s Country Store or Gruene Hall and wanting to emulate the success and songs of those founders of the Texas sound.
John Baumann has plenty of songs that get the blood pumping and the alcohol flowing, like the wit-filled “The Trouble With Drinkin'” (originally done by Aaron Lee Tasjan), and the ode to imbibing in life’s inebriating substances, “Heavy Head.” If there’s any problem, perhaps it’s that Baumann gets a little too drunk muscled in these songs, and gets a little bit of a cowboy dick about him, with his Texas accent coming out, while on other tracks you barely hear an accent at all.
As fun as some of these songs can be, they will not be the indelible mark of John Baumann’s career, though they may be the gateway drug for many to get there. It will be his deeper material that will keep the fans he makes begging for more. “Old Stone Church” about the death of a father has already been named one of Saving Country Music’s Best Songs of 2017 So Far, and the excellent “Lonely In Bars” could have made it on the list as well. Why some massive mainstream superstar couldn’t pick up a song like “Lonely in Bars” and have a huge hit with it, I don’t have a clue. It’s too good I guess.
There’s nostalgia—which is regularly broached in country songs—and then there’s John Baumann’s nearly 9-minute “Pontiacs” that closes this record out. Why more country artists don’t have the courage and boldness to really explore how deep a song can go like “Pontiacs” does is curious, but Baumann proves it can be done, and is all the better for not trying to squeeze in at four minutes.
Proving Grounds is a great album. It’s not an excellent album, but it has some excellent songs like “Pontiacs,” “Old Stone Church,” and “Lonely in Bars.” It might be easy to question the approach they took with songs like “Love #1” with its heavy reliance on one guitar riff, but they tired to keep things interesting, which they accomplished. An maybe one of the best things about Proving Grounds is how it makes you really hopeful from the output from Baumann in the future as a young songwriter. These songs are brand new, but you already want more from where “Loney in Bars” and “The Trouble with Drinkin'” came from.
1 3/4 Guns Up (8/10)
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June 19, 2017 @ 7:23 pm
Because you reviewed this, I’ll go give the whole album a listen. I heard The Trouble with Drinking several weeks back and immediately thought I don’t want to hear anything else this guy has to say. I’ll try and give him another shot.
June 19, 2017 @ 7:59 pm
You haven’t let me down yet.
Looking forward to giving this a listen.
June 19, 2017 @ 8:21 pm
Pontiacs is awesome…the rest are just st pretty good.
June 19, 2017 @ 8:44 pm
I like it. Thanks
June 19, 2017 @ 8:45 pm
It’s a great album…I’ll admit I’m not necessarily as into “Pontiacs” as the rest of it, but it’s growing on me too. It’s such a good balance of fun songs and deep, bright and dark.
June 19, 2017 @ 9:02 pm
Very nice to see John Edward Baumann getting more exposure.
His older is pretty damn good, “West Texas Vernacular” has some really strong songs and would be a good place to go if you like “Proving Grounds”.
June 19, 2017 @ 9:55 pm
“Bible Belt” off of West Texas Vernacular is definitely my favorite song by Baumann and is in the running for my favorite Texas Country songs, period.
June 19, 2017 @ 9:28 pm
Trouble with drinking is a cover I believe
June 19, 2017 @ 11:24 pm
It was originally done by Aaron Lee Tasjan.
June 20, 2017 @ 3:55 am
Happy to hear Joe Ely’s name again it bring back such good memories.
I saw him at an Country Music Festival in Gothenburg (Sweden) in mars 25 1978.
And the audience was mostly fanatic “classic country” fans, they didn’t even like waylon…)
And five minutes after he started to play the most people in the crowd start running for exit doors. But I sat there more or less in awe. I had never heard him before.
And songs like “Boxcars”, “West Texas valse”, “Honky Tonk Masquerade”
“Because of The Wind”, And that wild cover of Hank’s “Honky Tonking” spellbound in a way only Emmylou had done before.
And I got a signed copy of “Honky Tonk Masquerade”. And when i came home I played over and over again. And it’s still one of my favorite album. And in my view it’s a damn masterpiece….
Sorry if it was a bit off topic…
June 20, 2017 @ 5:09 am
This is my album of the year so far, and I don’t know if anything else is close. Here I Come and Pontiacs are my two favorites, but Heavy Head and When Ophelia Comes To Town are good faster ones too. The only ones I really don’t like are The Trouble With Drinkin and Love #1. It may not be a 100% perfect album, but it shows that Baumann has more potential than almost anyone out there, just like songs like Bible Belt and North Country’s Own did on his previous EPs.
June 20, 2017 @ 9:41 am
How can an album be great but not excellent?
June 20, 2017 @ 9:56 am
Huh? That’s philosophical
June 20, 2017 @ 10:17 am
That’s probably a fair question. My assessment of this album is that it has some of the best songs released so far in 2017, but on a couple of tracks it probably swings and misses. I don’t blame it for that because if you don’t go swinging for the home run ball, you’ll never hit it, and Baumann hits it a few times on this record. But seeing how there are a couple of weaker tracks, I don’t want to call the entire album “excellent,” and have someone pull up one of the weaker songs and say I steered them wrong. Hopefully this makes sense.
June 22, 2017 @ 12:03 am
Hmm. I think is a pretty good explanation of the difference between “great” and “excellent.” I get the point. I’ve heard two songs so far, “Lonely in Bars” and “Old Stone Church.” I would say that Lonely in Bars is good. Old Stone Church is incredible; excellent if you will. Hard to top that one. After one listen to Old Stone Church, I decided to buy the album. And on a side note, if I’m seeing it correctly, I love that the cover artwork has a worn circle in it. It looks like what happens to old cardboard album covers when stacked on top of each other and the vinyl wears the circular mark in the image. Cool take on “retro.”
June 20, 2017 @ 2:24 pm
I was unimpressed. The instrumentation and production are lovely but the lyricism is overwrought in places and flat out weak in others. Thematically the entire album is a little thin. I will say, however, that it’s leagues above what’s on the radio at the moment.
June 21, 2017 @ 7:40 am
I just can’t help noticing, that by your rating, this album is suppose to be so much better than the Earle album..
June 23, 2017 @ 5:27 pm
I do like the album though. I hear similarities to eric church in some instances in a good way. Still like Earle album though..
June 22, 2017 @ 2:55 pm
Ok, I don’t get it. I was looking forward to listening to this one after the review. I just listened to the first 6 songs on the album and I think I’m done. He sounds like a cut-rate Dierks Bentley/Keith Urban, and the lyrics are painfully obvious.
It looks like most of the tracks you praised are in the second half, but I’m not sure I can go on.
June 23, 2017 @ 11:53 am
Just gave this one a spin this morning. Off work today so I’m having some beers and finding new country music to listen to. This album is fantastic. Lot’s and lot’s of good music coming out of Texas. …No big surprise there; probably half the country music i listen to is out of Oklahoma or Texas. Good review, Trig! as always. 😀
June 27, 2017 @ 9:56 am
Here’s to “Meg ” and here’s to John and his songwriting .
July 12, 2017 @ 4:33 pm
Honestly, reminds me a lot of Eric Church. Not a bad thing at all, I consider EC a top 3 current country artist.
Mostly in the fact that the lyricism is deep but not too deep, making it an easy listen. You hear Baumann’s songs and they’re solid on the first listen, but it’s not like a 3rd or 4th listen will give you some new revelation about it. (As opposed to say, Isbell’s Southeastern). The sound and lyrical content fit in that small window that is somewhere between alt country and mainstream country. It’s artists like Church, Stapleton, Sturgill, Jinks,and I guess Baumann now that give me something that I can listen to around my friends, mainstream-listening country boys from rural Montana, without being called “a liberal Americana hipster”. When I’m sitting around having a beer after a hard day of work, I don’t want to listen to Isbell sing about cancer or racial injustice, but I also don’t want to listen to FGL sing about tailgates and degrading women. Baumann’s music, like Church or Stapleton, fits in an enjoyable niche somewhere in between.