Reckless Kelly

Reckless Kelly

Reckless Kelly's 2008 album, Bulletproof, proved its most mature and substantive offering to date, the local quintet brandishing its polished Red Dirt roots-rock with purpose. There was perhaps no better time, then, for the Braun brothers to pursue the long planned tribute to their former hometown hero, the "Idaho Cowboy" Pinto Bennett of the Famous Motel Cowboys. RK handles Bennett's tunes with familiarity and ease, adding their own flair while never losing the true honky-tonk heart of their origin. While lead-off "Little Blossom" blisters and the Joe Ely-aided "The Ballad of Elano DeLeon" kicks, neither stray far from the band's sound, but "I've Done Everything I Could Do Wrong" and "I Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel" take decidedly un-Reckless turns around the dance hall. David Abeyta doubles his powerhouse guitar with saturating lap steel to match Cody Braun's fiddle, but it's Pinto Bennett's own take on "Thelma" that still proves the highlight.