Months on the road fueled by cheap beer, gas station food, and likely a little grass (and likely more) are most of the ingredients behind the latest from Seattle’s Smoker Dad.
Hotdog Highway, the sophomore effort from the band, is a brilliant Pacific Northwest take on classic Southern Rock, echoing everyone from the Allman Brothers to 38 Special, with a little Outlaw Country mixed in for good measure. According to the band, most of the songs here are about love and /or struggling with sobriety due to the pressure of constantly touring. “It’s lonely on the road and the mind runs, Hotdog Highway is about trying to deal with that while still pulling through for the show every night,” said Trevor Conway, vocalist for the band.
You can hear the pressure -and boredom – of life on the road in a song like the ripping “Armadillo,” a track whose music belies the ache in the lyrics. “On My Mind,” a slower number, ramps up the tension of trying to hold onto a relationship when one of the two is never at home. By the time they get to “Tonight,” it’s evident booze is the best way to handle things on the road. The rowdy “Thinkin’ Bout Drinkin’” finds the band leaning into the plan – with a bit of cocaine and pills to quicken the feeling – and the slow burn “I Only Smoke When I’m Drinkin’,” one of the album’s best moments carries on the theme.
The album closes on the title track, a fantastic, goofy piano ballad perfectly tying the record’s themes together (“Like a hotdog down the highway/I keep rolling without end/Like a freight train running circles/Round and round in my head”). The song starts earnestly and builds up to a triumphant crash of cymbals, drums, and a scorching guitar solo, playing into the charm of the band: sly humor but backed up by stellar musicianship.
Music aside, the album cover is a work of art. Drawn by California-based artist Matt Adams, it shows two cowboys driving down the highway on hotdog motorcycles with some Easter eggs pulled from song lyrics hidden in the landscape.
