Outlaws
Dixie Highway

Since 1994, the year of the ninth album "Diablo Canjon," up to this "Dixie Highway" from last year 2020, the following things happen concerning the Outlaws:

_"Diablo Canjon," a good southern rock record released by a small poorly distributed label, catches the attention of few, and the Outlaws linger on a bit longer playing it, along with their "classics," in small venues.

_In 1995, during the same month of February, guitarist Billy Jones and bassist Frank O'Keefe, both original members of the group but long departed from it, die; the first by suicide, the second from an overdose.

_In 1996, leader Hughie Thomasson accepts an offer from Lynyrd Skynyrd and joins that band as a replacement for one of the original guitarists who resigned.

_At the end of the century, a "solo" record by Thomasson is released titled "So Low," with the same musicians from "Diablo Canjon" and, therefore, probably its follow-up, having gone through some publication twists.

_In 2005, Hughie grows tired of being a subordinate in Lynyrd and reunites the Outlaws with the three surviving original members. The Outlaws return to performing intensively with renewed enthusiasm and a live following, as the 2000s are not as cruel as the 1990s.

_In 2007, they record a disc with new songs titled "Once an Outlaw." It would be the tenth, but it never gets released because "Flame" Thomasson dies suddenly, just after the work is recorded, from a heart attack.

_The group decides to continue, settling like many other old stalwarts of classic 70s rock, with a limited but solid fan base. Henry Paul is the new reference leader, and in 2012, the tenth album "It's About Pride" is released, the first without Hughie in the lineup: I don't own it and therefore don't review it.

_In 2020, this "Dixie Highway" is released, the eleventh in the series and... excellent! Zero surprises, even the title is predictable and the cover is similar to many others; the eleven present songs are bright, predictable, solid, not very memorable, pleasant, satisfying, filled with guitars more than ever reflecting the situation of a bunch of musicians aware that in 2020, and at sixty/seventy years old, there is nothing truly necessary to prove, nothing important to invent, nothing additional to demand except to have healthy fun, rock, and country till passion and health still hold.

Maximum respect.