Ray Wylie Hubbard - Delirium Tremolos

Ray Wylie Hubbard takes time to reflect on where he has been, where he is today, and where he continues to go on Delirium Tremolos . Taking its title from an expression coined by his pal and producer Gurf Morlix for the little musical twists they like to throw into their work together, it's a collection on which Hubbard celebrates the centrality of the song within his musical journey over the course of more than four decades.

'I wanted to do an album of really cool songs, whether I wrote them or not,' Hubbard explains. The theme of the collection is set by the two opening numbers, The Beauty Way and Rock and Roll Gypsies, both of which explore the trail of the itinerant musician that Hubbard has followed. The first, written by Eliza Gilkyson, who guests on vocals, takes Hubbard back to his days as a budding folk singer with its allusion in the first verse to her father, folk music veteran Terry Gilkyson, an early influence on Hubbard. The second is a number by Oklahoma songwriter Roger Tillison that Hubbard first heard many years ago and since then has 'always sung around the house just because I like what it says about this way of life'

Delirium Tremolos addresses the basics: great songwriting - no matter who the writer is - and its role in Hubbard's ascension to distinction as an eminence grise among contemporary singer-songwriters. And with its display of appreciation and vision, it only whets the appetite for all that is still to come from Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Listen to samples:

• The Beauty Way
• Rock and Roll Gypsies
• Dallas After Midnight
• Torn In Two
• Drivin' Wheel
• This Mornin' I Am Born Again
• Dust Of The Chase
• Roll And I Tumble
• Cooler-n-Hell
• Choctaw Bingo