Come Cry with Me

Everything about Daniel Romano—from his nasal, dust-choked vocals to the brash Nudie-style suit he sports on the cover of *Come Cry with Me*—speaks to his self-conscious preoccupation with the aesthetics of classic \'60s honky-tonk. But though Romano\'s aware of his indebtedness to the likes of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, his music rarely sounds contrived, thanks largely to his impressive songwriting skills and evident reverence for country music\'s golden age. *Come Cry with Me* is Romano’s third full-length and contains some of his most arresting work; it\'s unrelentingly earnest. Songs like “I’m Not Crying” and “Where No One Else Will Find It” are sincerely forlorn pieces of songwriting that skillfully and deliberately evoke the heartbroken fatalism of doom-struck country artists like Johnny Paycheck and George Jones. The evident care that Romano shows on these songs proves he\'s more than just another kid in borrowed cowboy clothes, making *Come Cry with Me* a truly affecting bit of classic honky-tonk.

In tracing the evolution of former Attack in Black singer Daniel Romano as a classic country songwriter, one can hear the steady formation o...