iSound

“Sometimes in life you just need a new beginning,” says singer-songwriter Wink Keziah describing exactly where he is in both his life and his career right now. Hard Times marks a new direction for Keziah musically as well. It’s his first solo record without longtime band, Delux Motel, the first project recorded in Los Angeles and perhaps more significantly, Keziah’s exploration of wider avenues in his songwriting, with a conscious shift from a honky-tonk heavy vibe to one that is more balanced between the raucous and the spiritual. “Even though I’m rough and tumble around the edges, I have a very firm foundation in my faith and what I believe,” he says. Keziah penned all 11 songs on Hard Times that range from the spirituality of “Sweet Jesus” and “The Hands of God” to the autobiographical “Chain Link Fence” to the rollicking ode to redneck romance “Honky-Tonk Rendezvous.” The album’s mid-tempo opener “Sometimes You Win” is a testament to Keziah’s relentlessly positive outlo...