In his second solo CD, Mark Sinnis improves upon what was already stylistically great about prior release Into an Unhidden Future. With crooning vocals walking the listener through stories of love, loss and longing, Sinnis also assembles some great musicians to back up his narrations; traditional folk and western instruments combine to provide a genuinely melancholic feel. A Southern Tale is a great album as a whole, and the highlight tracks could easily be the opener It’s the End, But There’s No Heaven, Turn Another Page, title track A Southern Tale, and To Feel Your Passion, Gone’s The Sorrow.

From an outsider's view, Gothic Rock and Country Music have always seemed to be polar opposites. Dig a little deeper into the history of Gothic Rock and you’ll find acts that take the darker edge of the “American Spirit” and present it as something frightening and disturbing. Fields of the Nephilim, Eighteen Horsepower, and heck even early tracks by The Cramps took the darker side of down home music and made it a beautifully frightening art form. If we look at the late Johnny Cash - the man in black himself, we have more than enough brooding angst to fill a dozen splintered oak barrels. Mark SinnisMark Sinnis is one of the recent rare bronze and silver set vocal gems to hit the dark rock music scene. His vocal style is often described as “Cemetery & Western”. In listening to A SOUTHERN TALE, it’s as deeply moving and lilting as any Romantigoth act with imagery that pulls ghostly love lost with undead creepiness all with a beautifully plucked and strummed country acoustic guitar. If you’re a fan of dark romance with eerie edges, dig this crooner up

When I heard that Sinnis had a new album coming out, I was excited, I love the guys music and he is one of the best songwriters in the business, but then I thought that it hasn’t been that long since his first solo album and I was afraid that it might not live up to my expectations, then I realized that it has been at least two years and it’s been long enough with out some new Sinnis material and the excitement returned. I wasn’t disappointed when I listened to the album, to be honest I expected a continuation of his first album but with something extra, but even though you could categorize the two albums in the same genre, at the start of the first track you instantly feel there is a different vibe to this album, I thought it was a much more somber album. The biggest surprise on the album was the track A Christmas Song, I thought it was a weird choice to add to the album but Sinnis pulled it off seemingly effortlessly making it flow with the rest of the album. As far as covers go, I think Johnny Cash would like what Sinnis has done with I Still Miss Someone. I wish I could pick a favorite track to talk about but I can’t, from start to finish each song had me thinking it was my favorite, I tell you, the work Sinnis has done, his solo work and the stuff he’s done with Ninth House is on par with greatness, the stories he tells with his music are just amazing and I honestly can’t get enough of it.