A solid roots outing from Ash Grey who usually records with The Girls in a more psychedelic style and who has also released previous work as Ash Grey. For instance his 7 Rocks ep of some years back does just that in classic rock style. Here on these 12 original songs Grey has gathered a wide selection of players to accomplish this musical vision for this album. Players like John Hagen on cello and pedal steel guitarist Dave Biller are just two of number of players brought in to accompany him achieve this largely 60s/70s orientated outing.
The album opens with the title track, a song that starts with Grey’s vocal giving authority to the song of lesson’s being learned. It is followed by some equally strong like Two Lane Backdrop a twangy paean to vehicular escapism. Fiddler’s Son is more minimal and has some dexterous acoustic guitar picking. Whiskey Down is straight country with the singer being advised to let “whiskey down your sorrow”. The steel is also central to Sante Fe Sand another song that hits it’s mark. The insistent melody of 55 is also a winner and highlight Ash’s overall sense of melodic structure. All are delivered by Ash’s seasoned and versatile voice.
It is however the overall blend of different roots with hints of rockabilly, blues, country and melodic rock that makes this album work as well as it does. Grey obviously has a lot of music in him and it may be that some of his previous outings would not appeal to those taken by this album. What it does do is to confirm that Ash Grey is a musician capable of bringing his various musical visions to fruition in a way that listeners can equally be rewarded by.