Joey Greer - Frontier (2020)

Yeah, the first great album of 2020 is a Texas country album. I’m just as shocked as you are. No, but seriously, ‘Frontier’ is a fantastic debut. Joey Greer recounts his trials and tribulations but in a way we can all relate to. He’s been in the right and the wrong and matured along the path of the record through the experiences he had along the way. I don’t entirely agree with the track sequencing, but even so, I can’t argue that the way the tracks are ordered does do the album justice. The listener is encouraged to get to know Joey over the course of 41 minutes, and as a result, by the time you reach the emotional climax of the record with “Momma Prayed” and the subsequent sibling prayer, “How Great Thou Art” that closes the album, you really feel the weight on the shoulders of Joey and the rest of the Greer family. Joey, specifically, feels the need to take his music career to the next level in order to support the rest of his kin and to “Save the Farm.” At the end of the day, he realizes he’s “Good Enough,” and all the childish problems he worried about earlier on the record (mainly chasing girls) turned him into the man he is today—a supportive, indebted family man.