James Otto - Sunset Man Review

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 04.11.2008

MuzikMafia member tries to reignite his country career with a set of contemporary hell raisers and heartbreakers…

My Story
If you don’t know who the MuzikMafia is…and if you don’t, I question why you’re reading this…but let me waste time and explain. The MuzikMafia is a loose collection of country singers (as well as some other showbusiness types) who tend to show up on each other’s albums, not unlike different crews in the hip-hop world. The group is headed up by country duo Big & Rich and includes members like Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy. Let me put it this way: if you hear a bad song on country radio that seems to overly exude “we’re rock stars, y’all” bravado, it’s probably been worked on by the MuzikMafia. Oh, and they had their own reality TV show. Hate ‘em yet?

Anyway, I have yet to hear a MuzikMafia-associated song I’ve liked, but now I’m going to give a shot to an underlooked member – James Otto, who’s releasing his second album with help from Rich and a guy from Rascal Flatts. Goodie.

His Story
James Otto was born an army brat. His family followed his father from base to base throughout the United States, and young James experienced life from Alabama to South Dakota. James’ father and grandfather were both part-time musicians, and by the time he got his first guitar at age 13, he’d already learned to play the sax and the violin. While living with his mother in Alabama, Otto gained an appreciation for country music, and began giving a career in show business some though. Upon graduating high school, he spent a couple of years in the Navy. When he was discharged in 1998, he moved to Nashville to chase his dream.

While in Nashville, Otto fell in with a group of musicians known as the MuzikMafia, which included Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, who were becoming big names on the scene by the 2000’s. His association with the group (as well as appearances on their “MuzikMafia TV” show) led to a record deal with Mercury in 2002. That year, Otto released Days Of Our Lives, his debut album.

James Otto’s debut single, “The Ball”, just missed the Country Top 40, peaking at #45. A second single did worse, but his third, “Days Of Our Lives”, broke in at #33. With a glimmer of commercial hope, Mercury released a fourth single, “Sunday Morning & Saturday Night”, which failed to crack the Top 40. In 2004, Otto and Mercury parted ways.

After tooling around Hollywood for a few years (he even appeared in Road House 2), Otto got a second chance at country when he signed with Warner Bros.’ Raybaw Records in 2007. For his first Raybaw album, Otto scored production by both Big & Rich’s John Rich and Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus, his brother-in-law. The lead single, “Just Got Started Lovin’ You”, is a current Top 5 Country hit.

The Album
On April 8, 2008, Raybaw and Warner Bros. Records released Sunset Man, the second album by James Otto and the follow-up to 2004’s Days Of Our Lives. It’s also Otto’s first album for the label. Retail exclusive bonus tracks include “The Bigger The Caddy” (iTunes), “Your Good Thing’s Gone Bad” (iTunes) and “Last First Kiss” (iTunes).


The Band: 7.0
James Otto: vocals, acoustic guitar

Sunset Man makes me kind of sad. James Otto is an amazing country, the perfect whiskey drawl to sing the country love songs that men can raise a glass to and that make women swoon. Unfortunately, the production on this album rarely let’s that retro-singer take center stage. Otto obviously has an appreciation for country greats like Conway Twitty and Ronnie Milsap, but this album seems content to shoehorn Otto into the current Nachville style of big beats and rowdy “bad boy” rocking.

The worst thing is that the association with Big & Rich and Rascal Flatts is what will bring Otto his success here. Or at least get him noticed. And people will buy this album FOR those terribly produced, lukewarm songs. It’s enough to make you sick. The question is: doesn’t Otto realize that the songs he’s hearing his idols sing sound nothing like this?

The Songs: 6.0
1. Ain’t Gonna Stop
2. Just Got Started Lovin’ You
3. For You
4. These Are The Good Ole Days
5. Where Angels Hang Around
6. Sunset Man
7. You Don’t Act Like My Woman
8. When A Woman’s Not Watching
9. Drink & Dial
10. Damn Right
11. The Man That I Am

Sunset Man can be divided into three categories. Since it starts off with shit, let’s talk about the shit first. “Ain’t Gonna Stop” is awful, a “country rocker” that tries to give you a big bite with an even bigger muzzle. If a chorus as hackey as “I ain’t gonna stop till I drop/Oh, ain’t nothin’ gonna slow me down” gets you excited…well, you’re gonna love the “hilarious” “Drink & Dial”, a cut that warns against getting a DUI – “Dialing under the influence”. If this is country’s idea of fun, then stay out of Nashville bars on Saturday night. You may be too sleepy to drive home.

Luckily, the good stuff manages to counterbalance the shit. The lead single, “Just Got Started Lovin’ You”, is a true starmaker, and really does sound like something from Conway Twitty’s songbook. I even checked the writing credits to see if this was a cover. Why the producers decided to add the backbeat and electric guitars is beyond me – well, no it’s not. They’re fucking morons. But, even with the “modernization”, this is a great song. Even better is “When A Woman’s Not Watching”, an intersiting look at infidelity, and the tender “Where Angels Hang Around”, a tribute to St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis. A real tearjerker there.

The third category here belongs to the songs that just fall short. “Sunset Man” (a guy who found his wife left him in the morning, which is why he prefers the flipside) dies under its own big production. “Damn Right”, while sung well, is obviously written around it’s title. In the end, you have a lot of wasted potential. The good news is that Otto’s famous friends will keep him around a little longer – hopefully long enough to dump them and make the classic country heartbreak album he’s got in him.

The 411: Sunset Man is a frustrating album. James Otto is an amazing country singer, in the vein of 70’s stars like Conway Twitty. The problem is, the producers on this album just don’t know how to handle him. They get it close to right now and then, like on the single “Just Started Lovin’ You” and the really great fight track “You Don’t Act Like My Woman”. But too often, the songs are either shoehorned into bad production or Otto himself is shoehorned into awful country trends. If you like the single, the album is worth hearing, but James Otto can do much better than this.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]