T. Tex Edwards
plays a sort of muted, grungy
cowpunk
psychobilly
on
Up Against the Floor
. Though there are plenty of influences from hillbilly,
rockabilly
,
Tex-Mex
, and
punk
in the mix, it's not as avowedly strange and wild as much such stuff in this genre. It's eccentric, but not quite novelty fare. It's got a love for trashy lowlife, but it's not too in-your-face about it. Because it's not either overtly humorous or all that serious, it inhabits a somewhat uncomfortable fence between those mindsets. This kind of material usually lends itself to at least some outrageousness in the vocal department, but
Edwards
' vocals are too tentative and mumbly to make the most of that potential. His love of the source music for his brand of twisted
roots rock
is evident in the varied and sometimes surprising classics he selects to cover, including
Wanda Jackson
's
"Funnel of Love,"
Conway Twitty
"Lonely Blue Boy,"
Floyd Cramer
"Last Date,"
and
David Bowie
"Black Country Rock,"
but they also have the effect of reminding us how superior the originals were. So what you end up with is a marginal record in a genre that's itself of marginal interest even to the indie-minded
rock
community. ~ Richie Unterberger