Formed in 2005 by Swedish émigré Petter Ericson Stakee and Waltham Cross native Terry Wolfers, these melodic roots rockers have toured extensively without ever making a commercial breakthrough.
With Wolfers having now departed, the follow-up to 2012’s Songs Of Patience, recorded in a church in Woodstock, finds Stakee in reflective mood. ‘Getting tired of wandering,’ he sighs during Heavy Words, while on a mournful Water Mountain, his yearning vocal almost matches the other-worldly majesty of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James.
However, some imaginative arrangements – notably on a brass-heavy Ghost Of Santa Fe – can’t disguise the fact that the transcendent qualities this music demands are too often absent.
