Some of you may already be familiar with Tim Easton. Some of you like me may have been introduced to Easton with the excellent Easton Stagger Phillips album from last year, or maybe his new album Porcupine (really great album BTW). For those who don't know Tim Easton at all, let me try to describe what to expect. To me he reminds me a lot of Joe Ely....that country soul with rock and roll swagger.If you like bluesy riffs, great guitar playing, music that shifts effortlessly from straight rockin' out (such as Burgundy Red) to introspective folk (such as the excellent Stones Throw Away), excellent finger picking, crying in your beer, and lyrics that have a knack for sticking to your brain....all rooted soundly in traditional folk, country, & blues....chances are high you may like this. Damn, that description sounds like it could be for Blue Mountain, The Bottle Rockets, or possibly DBT....certainly fans of those bands would find something to enjoy with Tim Easton. He's a little more folk oriented than those bands though. I'm thinking Scott Miller fans may want to give this a listen too.
Sound on this is a little rough at first with the guitar way up in the mix, luckily that is quickly fixed and until the unplugged songs at the end you got some great sound on this one....like a B+ overall. Standout tracks are the aforementioned Stones Throw Away, the rocking Porcupine, Black Dog, Not Today, Carry Me, All The Pretty Girls Leave Town, Festival Song....well alot of these songs are making me want to explore Tim's back catalog. Highlight for me though is the reworking of Doc Watson's "Southbound" into the rollicking twangfest "Northbound", and then the cover of "Southbound" later in the set played in the same fashion.
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