The anti-Justin Timberlake: Ray Wylie Hubbard strums it original

In case you've ever wondered what the love child of Guy Clark and John Lee Hooker might look like ... meet Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Yeah, Hubbard, would probably be the first to admit that he won't be mistaken for a pretty boy like Justin Timberlake or David Beckham in a crowded room. What's more important is what that guitar-playing, songwriting prodigy might sound like.

The answer is a true original.

Hubbard has a gift for penning songs about the human condition and life journeys that long ago earned this native Oklahoman citizenship in the Lone Star State. He also has a wry sense of humor that could be appreciated both by a counter-culture hero like Woody Guthrie and full-on anti-government anarchists like the Sex Pistols in equal measure.

His most well-known songs date back nearly 40 years and include “Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother” and “Screw You, We’re From Texas.” A lot of writers run out of steam after conjuring new lyrical poetry for that many years but Hubbard's latest, A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C) is truly a thing of beauty.

The songs run the gamut from seduction of vices and addiction ("Drunken Poet's Dream," "Opium") to the gospel salvation needed to conquer such demons ("Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," "Whoop & Holler") in between is the unusual title track, which Hubbard himself has described as an homage to poet Edgar Allan Poe and, arguably his best known work, The Raven.

That Hubbard chooses Poe as his muse for A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C) seems apt. Both men, in their own way and in their own times, understood the importance of seeing the light in the darkness ( and vice-versa) when writing.

 

Ray Wylie Hubbard, 7:30 p.m. at McGonigel's Mucky Duck

Tickets: $20

• music, songs, The Raven, vices
• David Beckham, Edgar Allan Poe, Justin Timberlake, Ray Wylie Hubbard

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