Classic country sounds meet modern-day experience
Ozark-native and Los Angeles-transplant Alex Owen writes in the idiom of twangy country music, but without draping himself in remembered rural sentiment. The album’s shuffling title track is pure Nashville heartache, but the lyric threads in modern vocabulary and cultural touchstones. The album’s lanky piano and crying steel accompany references to John Lennon’s lost weekend and Laurel Canyon, and the upbeat country shuffle “Hard Man to Please†finds guitarist John Schreffler Jr. dueling with himself on pedal steel and Telecaster. Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium provides the setting for an afternoon of stoner adventure, and “Anyway You Slice It†closes the EP on an acoustic note. Owen picked the band name as a portmanteau that evokes the nostalgic roots of Birmingham and the modernism of lasers, and his songs delivery exactly that. [©2016 Hyperbolium] 