With a laid-back studio and a kick ass band, all Tony Kamel needed to tie his debut solo album together were some grade-A, feel good tunes—and boy, did he deliver. Back Down Home finds the Houston-born songwriter and frontman for the Grammy-nominated string band Wood & Wire striking out to make a solo record for Bruce Robison’s label, The Next Waltz. In just a few days of no-fuss tracking at The Bunker, Robison’s all-analog studio in Lockhart, Texas, Kamel and several talented contributors crafted an album that fully conveys the down-home vibe its title suggests, as well as the laid-back nature of life on Texas’ Gulf Coast, especially Galveston. The sum of all of these parts is a sonic travelogue of sorts that takes listeners from Texas-imprinted country-folk, old-time and bluegrass styles to Louisiana’s singular stew of Cajun, jazz, funk and other special ingredients; a stunning solo debut most aptly described as Third Coast roots music.