Recent Reviews Online:

      Houston Press, January 2002

      RockzillaWorld, July 2001

"roots, boots & billy" May 2001

Tryin' For Home
Houston Marchman
Blind Nello Records

Houston grew up on a ranch in Meridian (roughly 35 miles northwest of Waco). His love affair with music started when his mom gave him Jerry Jeff Walker's "Viva Terlingua" on his eleventh birthday. On his sophomore release, Houston carries on that same rockin' Texas country attitude with a fresh storytelling sensibility. Each song, delivered in his dreamy smoke & honey vocals, could very well be a short movie about Texas life "Plano Texas Girl," "Wichita Falls," "Wrong Side of Del Rio." My favorite cuts are the steel-laden, fiddle-happy, slower tunes-- "Tryin' For Home," "Hank's Angel" and "Buses In The Rain."

Rating: **** (4 stars)

More Online Reviews:

      Dallas Observer, December 2000

      RockzillaWorld, 2000

      Dallas Observer, June 1999

BLUE CHIP SPOTLIGHT ALBUM:

Leavin' Dallas by Houston Marchman.
Produced by Houston Marchman and Tye Robison.

This is one of those roll-yer-own albums that's being promoted to Americana radio, presumably on a shoe-string budget. Too often we dismiss these humble efforts because they lack the marketing muscle of the Nashville starmaking machinery. Dismiss "Leavin' Dallas" and you will deprive yourself of a mighty, mighty refreshing musical trip. Marchman is somewhere in the ballpark of Townes Van Zandt and Robert Earl Keen in the songwriting/storytelling department- a bit more wordy, but vivid. Musically, he's a country-rocker of the Mellencamp Springsteen - Earle variety. But this album's not a knockoff; it's original, raw, and flavored with the aftertaste of cheap beer binge. Fittingly, it's from the Lone Star state - the home of Willie Nelson, the home of western swing, and the home of general country music anarchy. Best cuts: "Leavin' Dallas", "Viet Nashville", "Caleb & Ray Dawn", "South Texas Rain", "Saddle Up."