Luba Dvorak - American Sin  (click on image to watch video)

 1 December 2019

Great country music can come from anywhere, as proven by the country-rock throwbacks written by Luba Dvorak. The Houston-based singer, songwriter and bandleader was born in Czechoslovakia and began his career in Vancouver and New York City, making him better traveled than the narrator in the old song “I’ve Been Everywhere.”

Recent album American Sin is as good a starting place as any to discover the gritty stories told by an artist worthy of comparisons to rocking country legend Dwight Yoakam and rock ‘n’ roll twangster Tom Petty.

Geographic-titled songs “Leaving Arizona,” “Brake Lights (on the LA Freeway)” and “Brooklyn Twang” tell vivid tales about specific places beyond the Lone Star State with a rawness associated with rock-oriented Americana acts. 

It’s not all rock ‘n’ roll dressed in rhinestones. There’s also the contemplative title track, a cover of Petty’s “Walls,” and the gentle string arrangement of “If I Go Down in Flames” as examples of Dvorak’s versatility.

The album also includes a song central to Dvorak’s recent career growth. Shortly after moving to Texas in 2017, Dvorak won an award at Steve Earle’s Camp Copperhead songwriting retreat for the song “Queen of the Rodeo.” It won’t take listeners long to fall in love with a song that’s already won over an all-time-great who’s cut from similar country-rock cloth.

American Sin also introduces listeners to Sadie Campbell, another singer-songwriter with roots in Vancouver. Dvorak and Campbell team up for the pedal steel-accompanied, Bakersfield-inspired duet “Loving You is Wrong.” Hopefully, impressed listeners look up Campbell’s lush, acoustic folk tune “Streets of NYC” and the butt-kicking blues-rock vibes of “Closer to the Edge.”

In all, Dvorak’s album reminds us that it is always an opportune time to scour the internet for globe-trotting, acoustic guitar-strumming artists with widely unheard—and unbelievably good—songs.

Bobby Moore

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