Album Review~Adam Hood 'Welcome To The Big World'

Singer songwriter Adam Hood released his fourth album, Welcome to the Big World, on November 4th. The Kickstarter funded project contains eleven tracks all of which he co-wrote. Hood is an artist, a singer, a picker, but above all he is a stellar songwriter; a storyteller whose album encompasses stories about life, love, family and the road. The stories, all united by Hood's warm, familiar vocals, are authentic, intimate and personal, yet relatable to the listener, making Welcome To The Big World, quite possibly, his best album yet.

The album starts off with the humorous, rockin’ and bluesy “Don’t That Sound Like Love” and segues nicely into “Trying to Write a Love Song,” which was a Top 5 hit on the Texas charts. Things take a quieter turn from there, but in a most wonderful way. Three songs in, the title track is definitely a centerpiece to the album. Sit back, listen to the lyrics and let them sink in--they’ll strike a chord.

Multiple tracks nicely tie together, referencing life on the road and missing the ones you love. The mid-tempo “Bar Band,” with its sing along city shout out chorus isn’t about carousing, rather it talks about Friday nights and those “good ole boys packed into a beat up van” who’ve “got it made, playin’ in a bar band.” The beautifully sad "Postcards and Payphones" (co-written with Will Hoge) expresses the loneliness of missing the ones you love so perfectly, it’s palpable. Finally, “Way Too Long” deals with the distance the road puts between people; tired and lonesome, needing her to meet him in the middle. “This place couldn’t be any colder, I need your head on my shoulder, my hearts been breaking way too long.”

In personal favorite, “Stars around a Cajun Moon” (can someone please sing this song to me??), the sweetly romantic mood is set by the accordion as he sings about returning from California to the one he loves. “I’m gonna hold her tight and kiss her and tell her just how much I missed her.”

The emotional “He Did” is reflective both lyrically and melodically (another song you can feel). In it he sings of his father and how he now does things like he did (like learning to like coffee and fixing things with a wrench) and how being like him brings him a sense of joy. “And out of all I dreamed I’d become, it’s the one thing I’m proud that I’ve done.”

Also on the album is “Whole Lot of Hard Work” which is about what it takes to make a relationship work, noting that “This road ain’t for the weak or for the faint of heart.” The album closes with a song about the end of a relationship, “I Took a Train,” that also contains one of the best opening lines in recent memory, “When she caught romantic fever I knew it was time to leave.”

Welcome to the big world indeed. If it’s a world filled with Hood’s music and storytelling, then it’s definitely a nice world to be in.

For more information on Adam Hood visit his official website.

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