Halfway to Hazard Halfway to Hazard [Mercury/StyleSonic Records] 2007
Produce by Byron Gallimore & Tim McGraw
Review by Cheryl Breo
Halfway To Hazard has just released their self-titled debut album…a collection of songs that brings us into the world of Chad Warrix and David Tolliver.
That world is a lot of country and a lot of rock and roll, with the pounding beat of drums, electric guitars in songs like “Countrified” co-written with Jeffery Steele, “Country Til The Day We Die” and a rocking love song in “Taking Me On,” plus those “love lost” tunes with “I’m Tired” co-written with Arlis Arbritton and “Burn It Down” written by James Dowell.
“Daisy”, the first single release from the CD is filled with great harmonies, showing off both David and Chad’s strong vocal ability…along with some “front porch type” banjo pickin’. Even though the story is a bit predictable..love, birth, death, single parent left to carry on, they manage to make an over-done theme sound fresh and bright, with lyrics that certainly “loved the hell” out of me!
Adding “Cold” to the mix, slows things down and we find the duo’s name in the opening lines of the song…they are halfway to Hazard, with a broken heart…”won’t find me looking back…ain’t noting like whiskey when a woman turns cold”. Now, there is a REAL country lyric for you..
In “Devil And The Cross”, written by James Dowell, we hear the story of the difficult redemption of a preacher’s son, “who was his daddy’s worst nightmare…having one foot on the solid rock and the other on the sinking sand”. The lyrics give a new twist to the traditional country gospel theme, but still holds true to the message of God’s forgiving love and the undying love of a parent for their child, reminding us that “God forgives the lost because we live somewhere between the “Devil And The Cross”.
By far my favorite track is “Die By My Own Hand”, written by Tolliver and Warrix. It is a chilling, powerful song…a man admitting and giving in to his inner demons, but also still loving the woman who those demons pushed out of his life. The lyrics are raw and real, “Sex and the City, and Indian food…I never tried ‘em, not until you…but it’s looking like you left me with some habits I can’t break”…sung soft and low, then moving to stark reality by pounding into “you changed me baby, and given enough time you might have saved me…but then again, you might have just gone crazy, trying to love a music man”. This is definitely not a “generic, cookie-cutter” Nashville created song.
Which leads me into “Welcome To Nashville”, a real hoot of a song that throws some “digs” at Music City’s way of doing business…with biting jabs at an almost “conveyor belt” way of turning out and packaging “hits”. This one will leave you laughing!
Halfway To Hazard is a duo that throws the throttle full forward, no looking back, only at the road ahead of them. Their name may say “Halfway”, but don’t forget their name…they will be all the way to the top in no time flat!
