I wasn't too sure I'd like alt country, but this CD is awesome. Awesome to the point where I really can't stop playing it. If you are not sure if you should buy this CD...buy it. It is wonderful.

This album is wonderful. Super cool songs. ghostly, witty and full of beautiful energy. The vocals are gorgeous, the production is impeccable.

It's like noon or midnight. It's like the midpoint of the shade spectrum, somewhere in absolute gray, neither white nor black. It's familiar yet completely foreign territory. It's Cottonhead's "Happy Tree". The overall vibe is that indefinable point between Louisville post-punk and a whiskey bar at the farthest point south in the contiguous U.S. It might not seem possible, but songs like "This Is What I Want" and "Dark", while arranged with the usual instrumentation, hardly sound like products of their genre. The band has the benefit of being better informed than their peers, even if they choose not to let on just how much so. Primary songwriters Greg Talenfeld and Mary Birdsong have found a way to combine the elegant, stark quality of Richard Buckner, the wide-eyed sweetness of Shawn Colvin and the jaded edge of Sam Phillips without seeping into cliché or, worse, becoming morbid. There's plenty of light heartedness to be found, specifically on "At Least We Got Into The Game", as potent an ode to probable lost causes as I've ever heard. It is when things get hard that the band really shines. The aforementioned "Dark" is beautiful and spooky all at once, replaying itself in the mind of the listener long after the cd has stopped spinning. It's the blood on the sleeve where the heart used to be. But in the end, what you'll remember is Birdsong's voice, somewhere in that absolute gray where laughter turns to tears. This disc is recommended to anyone who has asked the questions: why are all the new country groups like 70s pop radio, or why are all the underground bands so full of anger and angst? It's also recommended to anyone looking for something really "new" and mature. And finally, it's recommended for anyone who has stayed awake too long, filled with that unnamed feeling, staring at the absolute gray where nothing really begins, or ends, but simply is. You know who you are.

This is the best kind of music, in my opinion. It bridges various music types without blatantly copying any of them. This is the best of alt country/indie rock, with a charasmatic singer and savvy guitarist, it reminds this old lost soul of the fine years of the knitters, exene and john in their prime, 11th Dream Day. You know what I'm saying. Clever lyrics, nifty instrumentation, great guitar sounds. Loved the strings, and especially loved the accordion. Great dynamics. All in all, a splendid job. If you like Amy Rigby, Cowboy Junkies, or any of the aforementioned bands/references, you'll like or love this. Stripped down and piled on in all the right places. I hope they play for another 10 years in NYC so I'll get a chance to see them.