Scamp

About

<i>Scamp</i> marks Jerry Jeff Walker’s graceful transition into old age. It's a change he appears to relish, which is somewhat surprising given his freewheeling past. The album contains numerous moments where Walker seems giddy about his present state. “The moral of my story is the fool he never thinks/And all around you life says you must change every day/Throw off those old shackles and get up and dance around/Today’s the day we’re roping, making tracks for higher ground.” Walker addresses the touring cycle (“Life on the Road”) and the transformative and redemptive nature of love (“Love Changes Everything”) and offers tributes to fallen friends (“Manny’s Hat Song,” “He Was a Friend of Mine”). “Long Old Dusty Road” is a salutation to the fulfillment of domestic life, while “Let’er Go” runs down the songwriter’s entire career, taking listeners all the way back to the moment he left his hometown and bringing them through New Orleans and Los Angeles and to his adopted homeland of Texas. The music is amiable, unhurried, and naturalistic, a clear reflection of its author’s late-life contentment.

via Apple Music

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