1997 Rusty Russell--The unmistakable western flavor of many Ace Ford songs can be traced to the time he spent on his grandfather's ranch during his youth. Some twenty-five miles from Tucker, the spread had been given to Ace's forebears as veterans of the Texas Revolution. "It's a hard land," Ace notes, "but it's always held a lot of opportunity for anyone who wanted to take a chance on it. That made for a pretty interesting mix of pioneering types, and I guess that's why stories that come from there have a certain depth or quality." Some of Ace's songs are taken directly from the region's rich history. In "Barbed Wire," a life-long range hand looks back at decades spent doing what had to be done-his means of living, the dominant thread in the fabric of his life, and questions its rightness. Here, Ace has fashioned a western version of the timeless human irony, a framework for posing one of life's larger questions. "Eight More In The Clip" sparkles with clarity like the cold blue steel of the gun that is its subject. The combination of urgency and long-endured angst is chilling: "When every day's a battle, life's a war ... I've got one up in the chamber, and eight more in the clip. " This is Ace at his inward-looking best, a worthy disciple of his longtime favorite, Guy Clark. It's been said-rightly-that there is songwriting, and there is the songwriting business, and that much of what we hear today is born of the latter. Ace Ford's good fortune is that he came to his craft at a very different time and place. Ours is that the spirit of that time and place comes alive in every story he tells.
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Artist info obtained from public profile, artist website or social media
1997 Rusty Russell--The unmistakable western flavor of many Ace Ford songs can be traced to the time he spent on his grandfather's ranch during his youth. Some twenty-five miles from Tucker, the spread had been given to Ace's forebears as veterans of the Texas Revolution. "It's a hard land," Ace notes, "but it's always held a lot of opportunity for anyone who wanted to take a chance on it. That made for a pretty interesting mix of pioneering types, and I guess that's why stories that come from there have a certain depth or quality." Some of Ace's songs are taken directly from the region's rich history. In "Barbed Wire," a life-long range hand looks back at decades spent doing what had to be done-his means of living, the dominant thread in the fabric of his life, and questions its rightness. Here, Ace has fashioned a western version of the timeless human irony, a framework for posing one of life's larger questions. "Eight More In The Clip" sparkles with clarity like the cold blue steel of the gun that is its subject. The combination of urgency and long-endured angst is chilling: "When every day's a battle, life's a war ... I've got one up in the chamber, and eight more in the clip. " This is Ace at his inward-looking best, a worthy disciple of his longtime favorite, Guy Clark. It's been said-rightly-that there is songwriting, and there is the songwriting business, and that much of what we hear today is born of the latter. Ace Ford's good fortune is that he came to his craft at a very different time and place. Ours is that the spirit of that time and place comes alive in every story he tells.
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Artist info obtained from public profile, artist website or social media
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