Country by numbers. A slow and drab affair, that is until the end, when it shifts a gear
The country rhythms bop and bump under a female vocal that's a rawer Shania Twain singing about tales of the night, booze and bust-ups and men and women entangling themselves in things. It's jingly-jangly and all very Texas barroom, but it doesn't seem quite saleable enough to really take off over here.
All the songs are a little samey, but there's occasional points where something stands out, the start of 'How I Wish' for example with Kim Helm's voice deliciously resounding over the sparse musical landscape or the song 'Tail Lights' that's seems to have a little something more about it than the others.
Still the music portrayed on this album is really quite paint-by-numbers Americana/country and doesn't go far enough to really engage the listener; in fact it doesn't break the mould at all and is rarely exciting, until it gets to 'Never Said Nothin' that is, which is reminiscent of Willie Nelson or Townes Van Zandt and is the real highlight of the album, so much so in fact that it completely overshadows everything else.
Last song 'A Drink For You' finishes it off quite nicely, but borders on getting slightly too indulgent in the whole alcohol thing, but there's a good ol' singalong romp in the chorus which'd certainly get ya going if you saw these guys live, performing at a bar behind a grate of chicken-wire, kicking up a real hoedown...
Indeed, the album goes out a lot better than it came in, but overall it just doesn't cut it. Even at a running time that comes in at under half an hour there still seems to be expendable material on this record. It's all a bit lacklustre at the start, fades in the middle, but gets it in the end. If you want a similar record in the country vein I recommend The Little Willies, or something a little more classy and earnest like Josh Ritter's The Animal Years. If you've got both of them then shop around a bit, if you're still failing think about this, it's... Ok.