Personnel: Cowboy Troy (vocals); Jill Kinsey (vocals); James Pennebaker, Paul Allen, Adam Shoenfeld (guitar); John Rich (acoustic guitar); Mike Johnson (steel guitar); Dan Dugmore (lap steel guitar); Randy Kohrs (dobro); Jonathan Yudkin (banjo); Larry Franklin (fiddle); Michael Rojas (piano, Farfisa, Hammond b-3 organ, synthesizer); Ethan Pilzer (bass guitar); Brian Barnett (drums); James Otto, Paul Worley, Tim McGraw, Big Kenny, Liana Manis, Jon Nicholson, Joan Bush, Atom (background vocals).

Additional personnel: Big & Rich.

Recording information: Blackbird Studios, Nashville, Tennessee; Sony ATV Studios, Nashville, Tennessee (2005).

Considering that Cowboy Troy proudly bills himself as the "first black country rapper" and the inventor of "hick-hop," listeners might be excused for writing him off as mere novelty. Doing so, however, would cause them to miss an extraordinary talent, who not only revels in breaking boundaries, but rustles up a heck of a block party.

"Crick in My Neck," which combines a funk beat with twanging banjo and Floyd Cramer-like piano tinkling, could serve as a hilarious anthem for girl watchers of every stripe. "If You Don't Wanna Love Me" borrows a vocal melody from Chicago's "Hold Me Now," while sensitively tackling the oft-mined hip-hop topic of turbulent domestic relations, but from a suburban point of view. Of course, Cowboy Troy is, above all else, a rapper and therefore required by the genre's laws to include a song devoted to bragging about his skills. "Beast on the Mic" is a worthy entry that not only displays some fleet rhyming, but pulls off the neat trick of matching down-home fiddle licks with raging nu-metal guitar. LOCO MOTIVE is a wildly ambitious album that succeeds in defying expectations, while never succumbing to simple shock tactics.

Rolling Stone (No. 975, p.72) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "[Troy] sounds right at home with the country fiddles..."