From the name of this four-piece, the uninitiated might expect a gang of bourbon-swilling, Confederate flag-waving southern rock outlaws. Instead, they’re a distinctly youthful combo from preppy Boston making good-time country rock that would surely be welcomed at school proms throughout the land.
Be Your Man is a classic bar-room boogie that has a certain cute charm, even if the banks of sax add a touch of beer-ad cheese that’s surplus to requirements. Shake Like Jello also has a 50s dance-craze feel to it, complete with doo-woppy backing vocals, and you can imagine it probably sounds great when beefed up live.
In the studio, though, it’s all a little too understated, and while there’s a whiff of Springsteen’s righteous anger behind Centralia, PA, the rimshot-strewn restraint of it all means that, like the rest of this record, it never quite gets your pulse racing./o:p
