Ron Pope – Ron Pope & The Nighthawks: Dive-bar ready, at best

A former solo artist with a pop-slanted past, the Georgia- born Ron Pope has released 11 albums independently over eight years.

His 12th sees him hook up with backing band The Nighthawks, but they don’t augment his sound in the way he might have intended.

The better songs on this album would be best suited to a Nashville dive bar, where the twangy country rock of Southern Cross and the rambunctious, Springsteen-aping Hell of High Water would probably go down reasonably well with a rowdy Saturday night crowd.

The worst? Well, the less said about the turgid, cheese-smothered Hotel Room the better.

The end result is a distinctly average collection that veers dangerously close to “cringeworthy” at times.

[ ronpopemusic.com ]