Album Notes

Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, this roots rockin' band debuted at Schuba's Tavern in late 1998. MARVELING AT THE RINGS is the follow up to their first full length release, SOMETIMES MIGHTY TRANQUILIZED, which received air play on over 80 AAA and college radio stations from NYC to Alaska as well as Belgium and Italy. Here's what critics have to say about MARVELING AT THE RINGS:

Columbus Ohio's Woosley Band sounds like the soundtrack to last call, the imminent demise of a good buzz, a bleary-eyed, stale-breath peek at love and loss. "I guess I really didn't give a shit / It felt good at the time / So that's why I did it," front man Sean Woosley sings, loose and whiskey-weathered, on "Half a Wit". Marveling at the Rings is full of that sort of wry weariness, and that's what makes it engaging.

The album has a good spread of alt-country barnburners ("Famous", "American Locust", "Milkbreath") jubilant country road anthems ("Airport") and simmering slow dances ("Short Arm"). There's also a steady diet of strings ­- lazy electric peals, the winsome yawn of pedal steel, and a rhythmic acoustic foundation. The band plays it rough and loose on the album; there's nothing too pretty or too smooth. But despite the dust kicked up from the guitar/drum stomps and all the gravel in the throat, there is an overall brightness to Marveling at the Rings. Listen to "Golden Goose" and you'll not only feel the luster underneath the grit, you'll get the message the Woosley Band is trying to drive home ­- that there's light in gray.

Kate Brendimus, Splendid Magazine

A bracing blast of hot-shit alt-country from Sean Woosley and gang. Shining amid 11 tuneful, edgy, twangy numbers is one genuinely great song. "Carpenter" is a darkly humorous tale that would do Warren Zevon proud (if he weren't dead): "I know a carpenter/who's perpetually pissed off/It's not a day goes by/he don't dream of killing someone/If the media has taught us anything at all/it's don't go firing/lonely men with guns." Nearly equal in impact is the rockin' closer, "Famous/American Locust/Milkbreath," a sprawling suite with a Crazy Horse fever. But those are just two highlights; there's really not a weak tune here, and I'm sure given enough time (which I may very well take) I'll fall in love with a few more. Way to go.

Jim Santo, Demo Universe



Woosley band mastermind Sean Woosley has a murky, cluttered vision, wrapped up in a swirl of music that sits somewhere between the lands of the alt. country of Wilco and Son Volt and the electrified folk of World Party. Lyrics of resignation, confusion and occasional terrifying bouts of menace peep through a wall of sound that can be surprisingly beautiful...Woosley has a thing for obscurity in his lyrics---not the sort of nonsense you get from Duran Duran lyrics, but just lyrics that make you wonder what's going on in that head of his...the sort of obscurity that's fun to play with.

Indiecrit.com, John Scalzi

The great guitars that flourish throughout this album make MARVELING AT THE RINGS interesting to listen to and illustrate what these guys do best: rock and wail".

Columbusmusic.com, Allison Morsek

"[MARVELING AT THE RINGS] is a remarkably cohesive record...Woosley and the rest of the band have clamped down on TRANQUILIZED's (their previous release) best qualities, eschewing its disparate elements to focus on mid-tempo reveries lit with certain fire."

Columbus Alive, Stephen Slaybaugh

The material is solidly in the rock vein with only a trace of country in the form of the occasional pedal steel flourish or an Appalachian-style vocal harmony. One will hear a sound that falls somewhere between The Rolling Stones and The Byrds in all their incarnations. Marveling At The Rings is a worthwhile listen for sure.

The River Reporter, Bob Cianci