Roger Creager - Having Fun All Wrong (1998)

Roger Creager released his debut in 1998 with all the fanfare one might expect from a little-known performer without a label to promote his career. The quality of the music, however, guaranteed that someone would pick it up sooner or later and spread the good news. In 2002 Dualtone reissued Having Fun All Wrong along with Creager's 2000 release, I Got the Guns. Both albums find a fully mature artist confidently plying his trade. While Creager has called himself a singer/songwriter, he's more likely to remind one of Dwight Yoakam than Guy Clark. Even when he covers Clark's "L.A. Freeway," the song has more twang per line than Jerry Jeff Walker's version. On the ballad "Feel Again" and the upbeat "I Can Too," Creager builds his sound with honest-to-God fiddles and steel guitars. Producer Lloyd Maines mixes and matches these traditional elements with drums and electric guitars to concoct a sound that's contemporary, while still retaining a natural quality. In other words, it reminds one of what a Nashville hat act might sound like if he wasn't over-produced. Creager's a good singer too, injecting gritty soul into his lyrics. Having Fun All Wrong will please country music fans who've been wondering what's been missing since Garth Brooks hit the scene in the '90s.~Having Fun All Wrong Review by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.