Tony Stampley: Rebelution
Album Review by Todd Sterling, excerpt from "countryreview.com"

I s there anybody out there starved for outlaw country? Not glossed over, pretend outlaw country, but the real thing? Thought there might be a few of you tuning in. Now put away those Waylon albums for a minute and listen up. If you’re looking for songs with a little grit and a lot of heart and soul, look no further than Tony Stampley’s debut album, Rebelution (Dreamworks Nashville). Stampley, son of 70's rebel rouser, Joe Stampley, has the outlaw sound down cold. If you miss the glory days of Hank Williams Jr., Rebelution is the disc for you.

The album opens up strong with a fiddle and beefy electric guitars. Stampley lets us know right out of the gate, on "American Offline", that he’s not one of the millions of people who spend all their time sitting in front of a computer, driving the point home with lyrics only a rebel could write, "I love them honky-tonk bars/pretty girls and making homemade wine/I’m an American offline."

"Doctor Jesus" is a heartfelt spiritual (or as close to a spiritual as an outlaw can get). Stampley puts in an urgent request to Jesus, begging for salvation while a simple production – lightly strummed acoustic guitars, subtle piano and sparse mandolin – offers the perfect balance for his gruff vocals.

"I Hate To See You Go (But I Love To Watch You Walk Away)" gets points for its clever hook-line, but also for being one of the longer song titles in recent memory. Cut musically from the same cloth as Vern Gosdin’s "This Ain’t My First Rodeo", "I Hate To See You Go", written by Stampley, Buck Moore, and Randy Travis, is a rowdy number about an obsessive guy who can’t get enough of his woman’s rear view.

A stomp-heavy track like "Bad Girl (Looking For A Good Time)", complete with its thundering percussion and blistering electric guitars, wouldn’t sound out of place on a Lynyrd Skynyrd album. And what would an outlaw record be without a drinking song to close out the show? "Waste Of Good Whiskey" gives it all away in the title – a man contemplates looking for a better way to get over an old flame after he realizes there ain’t enough whiskey in the world to do the job, and that he’s just wasting the good stuff trying.

Call it outlaw music, call it alt-country, call it southern-fried country-rock, call it whatever you want – Rebelution is just great music played by a good ole boy whose roots run deeper than the 90's. Tony Stampley is an island of reality in an ocean of mediocrity.