On Kiss On The Breeze, lost loves and redneck daddies come together on an empty Texas highway, with you riding shotgun and ace storyteller Kevin Deal at the wheel. As on each of Deal’s two previous albums, the legendary Lloyd Maines serves as producer and all-around musical presence. He and Deal have crafted the Weston, Texas, resident’s most musically ambitious effort. It has country and blues and Tex-Mex and a whole lot of Lone Star soul, sung and played with enough passion to rope your heart and slap a silly grin on your face.
Deal, who wrote all twelve tracks, has an impressive ability (akin to Charlie Robison, Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard) to blend humor, heartbreak and quirky character studies in his songwriting. “Things I’ve Done For Love” demonstrates his insight into the twisted (and funny) world of heartbroken fools: “I’ve thrown my heart out on the floor/Just to see it danced on once more/I know it makes no sense/Like running naked through a barbed wire fence”.
“My Father’s Redneck” is an amusing tale about a guy who still keeps his “hippie hair in the closet” yet realizes that baggy pants and Marilyn Manson turn his neck the same shade as that of his fond-of-kicking-hippie-ass father. “A Thousand Words” is a touching ballad that cuts even deeper thanks to Maines’ steel playing and Terri Hendrix’s harmony vocals. And Deal pays tribute to fellow Texan Stevie Ray Vaughn on “Day The Blues Cried”.
