Is this really a concept album by {$Asleep at the Wheel}? Sho' nuff, and yes it is. And why not? {$Ray Benson} and company have already done a tribute to {$Bob Wills}, so what could be more Texan than to do one of songs about and related to the Alamo? In his tribute to one of America's greatest mythological battles and a cornerstone of the modern Texas consciousness, {$Benson}'s research has paid off bigtime, in a wonderfully wrought, engaging, enlightening, and thoroughly delightful listening experience. Using {\traditional} melodies ({&"Remember the Alamo"}), old fiddle tunes ({&"Soldier's Joy"}), and a mournful bugle call ({&"Deguello"}), as well as nationalistic anthems ({&"Davy Crockett"}), classic {\cowboy} tunes ({&"Yellow Rose of Texas"}), modernist hits ({$Bob Wills}' {&"New San Antonio Rose"} -- you didn't think he was gonna leave {\Western swing} completely out of the mix did you?), movie songs by {$Dimitri Tiomkin} ({&"Green Leaves of Summer"} and {&"Remember the Alamo"} from the 1960 {$John Wayne} flick of the same name), and tunes written for the project itself (such as {$Monte Warden}'s {&"Stout and High"}), {$Benson} has woven his own fabulist universe. In it, he humanizes the Alamo for the listener, gives it faces, feelings, context, and a new kind of endurance that is certainly romantic, but is also far more realistic than most historic accounts. {$Benson}'s sound world is one that crisscrosses time and space and employs many textures -- one is {$the Tosca String Quartet}'s embellishment on three tunes -- as well as his ready (corny) sense of humor (check the tune about {$Ozzy Osbourne}'s wacko trip to the relic and pissing on it). It's a fine recording and one that will wear exceedingly well in the band's catalog. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide