West of Judgment, Trace Adkins is Luke McBain 1 Review

I might be slightly biased about Trace Adkins is Luke McBain. I worked in Country radio for a number of years, and I remember Trace Adkins' debut as an artist. He played one of the local fairs and the station I worked for promoted his appearance. Probably with his single "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing". I got to meet him and "bring him up" to the stage. That's the fun part of being a radio personality: meeting the artist and then walking out on stage and introducing him.

Trace Adkins is Luke McBain is definitely from the mold of "Billy Jack" and "Walking Tall". It's very much like the 2004 Dwayne ("The Rock") Johnson film. Johnson plays Chris Vaughn a discharged Green Beret who returns his small hometown to find it run down. The local mill is closed and there's a new casino downtown that is a front for drugs. A number of his former friends are now part of the corruption and criminal activity. 

Here, McBain - possibly a one-off of pseudonym Ed McBain, author of the 87th Precinct crime drama novels - walks tall back to his small hometown of Eden, Louisiana after fourteen years in prison. He is immediately offered a room above the gas station at the edge of town by the son of his family's former maid. Stopping at Eden's grocery store, he uses an ax handle and his fists to stop a robbery. After paying a quick visit to his brother, Paul, for keys to a truck, then dinner with an old high school sweetheart, he's paid a visit by the sheriff.

This is definitely a pulp-style men's adventure. Two-fisted. Coarse language. Courtesy of writer David Tischman. Brian Stelfreeze's cover is album cover material. Kody Chamberlain's art is moody. Lean and sparse on color, heavy on shadows and shadowy tone. The testosterone carries a heavy musk. Luke McBain is cut from the same cloth as The Man in Black, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. Two-fisted tough, but sensitive enough to play a Country song. Probably about Mama.

Trace Adkins is Luke McBain earns four stars for tough-guy action.