Thackery gets the roadhouse revue rolling with the humorous opener “Let
The Guitar Do The Work,” whose moral is that it’s the guitar, not
the bling-bling, that gets the chicks. Thackery’s a funny guy all right,
on “Upside of Lonely,” he reveals that breakups aren’t all
bad: more room in bed, more sports telly, smoking stogies indoors, ya know, those
great guys things. He mixes his styles like an artist being paid by the color,
constantly shifting tone, technique and tunings to come off as a consummate stylist.
There are a couple of convertible-cruising instrumentals (“Kickin’ Chicken,” “Fender
Bender”), a ’60s spy movie-copping theme (“Get Up”) and
even one (“Had Enough”) that could work for one of those Nash hat
hunks. Still Thackery gets his crank on and having an ivory pounder like Kevin
McKendree can’t hurt the occasional barrelhouse sensibility either. Thackery’s
masterful coalescing of wizardry has never been better.