BRUCE ROBISON

When Bruce Robison gazes into the mirror in the mornings, he sees a songwriter. "It’s the last thing I see at night when I turn off the lights, too," he adds.

The other hats the Texas-born Robison wears - performer and recording artist - are equally important to him, but they are roles which he regards as a natural outgrowth of his songwriting origins.

"I always felt like writing was my strong suit," he says. "That’s what got me into the music business, and that’s where I felt the absence of resistance I’d always felt from everything else I’d tried to do. I’m way into recording and singing and playing live. But writing is a thing I can’t imagine doing without."

Bruce’s growing command of the writer’s craft is on ample display on his third album, Long Way Home From Anywhere. Produced by Robison himself, the new album features seven songs written or co-written by Bruce. The balance of the album features tunes by Austin songwriters Damon Bramblett and Joe Dickens, and Yusuf Islam (better known to Western audiences as Cat Stevens). But the flavor of the album is bottled-in-bond Bruce, filtered through the honky tonk heritage of his Texas Hill Country stomping grounds.

"One of my joys in life is being able to play places like (legendary Texas beer joints) the Broken Spoke, the Cabaret and Gruene Hall and making ‘em dance," he says.

Making ‘em dance is still the prime criterion for successful live music in Bandera, the small town in the verdant Texas Hill Country where Bruce - and his older brother and fellow Lucky Dog recording artist Charlie - were raised.

The self-proclaimed "Cowboy Capital of the World," Bandera sits astride a sparkling river, and the surrounding green hills are dotted with ranches of both the dude and the working persuasions.

The two boys started their first band while still in junior high school, playing a typically Lone Star-eclectic mix of cover songs. "We played rodeos, dances, anywhere they’d let us," the 33-year-old Bruce told a reporter. "And in Texas, nobody was surprised or confused at all to hear the Stones segue into Johnny Paycheck."

That musical catholicism is evident on Long Way Home From Anywhere, as well as his previous collection, last year’s Wrapped (also on Lucky Dog). Rooted in the Texas country music/singer-songwriter tradition, Robison’s songs are also highlighted by his eye for the small but telling lyrical detail (watch for the "piccolo player in the marching band" crying alone under the football stands in "Travelin’ Soldier"). His music speaks to the commonality of everyday experience with wit, warmth and compassion.

"I don’t believe in music as an instrument of social change," he says. "I believe in it as a common experience, as it was when I grew up. I don’t believe in people preaching to you; it’s more like just throwing something out there that somebody can relate to.

"And just because it might be a sad song it doesn’t necessarily make people feel sad. Hank Williams makes you feel better in a way that you can’t even explain."

In some ways, he says, the release of Long Way Home From Anywhere feels like his first album. "I was really able to approach this album in a different way (from the preceding album)," Bruce says. "We had more money, and there were things that I was able to do that were a lot of fun, like putting some strings on there, and using the players in Nashville that we got. Right now, I feel like I’m getting a lot better at the process of recording. That said, I definitely want to sell a lot more records this time."

Given the album’s sound and substance, which appeal equally to the heartstrings and the bootheels, that is certainly an attainable goal.

Bracketed by two road songs (the somber "Drivin’ All Night Long" and the exuberant title track), Long Way Home From Anywhere charts a meandering course through the peaks and perils of matrimony (the lilting "Just Married" and the wry, downbeat "Emotionally Gone"), the elusive oasis at the bottom of the glass ("Red Letter Day" and the unapologetic, irresistibly danceable "The Good Life"), and the way stations of a questing heart ("What Did You Think" and "Travelin’ Soldier").

The album’s release marks the culmination of a long journey for Bruce. "This is what I’ve been working for for ten years," he says with satisfaction. "I’ve got a new record in the pipeline, I’ve got gigs booked that are not in the same town, there are people who will hear me who have never heard me play. And every time you do that it gets a little better. To me it’s like, ‘Wow, what a great job!’ I’m optimistic about the future.

As he told an Austin reporter, "All this has always been better than what I could have imagined. Sure, right now, it’s not the road paved with gold, but it’s still great fun. And I always feel like I’m working towards something good."