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Trainwreck Riders
Lonely Road Revival
Alive Records
The Trainwreck Riders’ music may be pure rootsy fire and stomp, but their harmonies have all the sweet glide of The Byrds at their most melodic. That being said, the momentum on their sophomore album Lonely Road Revival relies on the juxtaposition of the rough and the smooth and the results are decidedly winning. With a satchel that runs deep with twangy versatility, here you’ll find everything from jangling rockers (“Through Unto The End”) to melancholy ballads (“To The Grave”) to bluegrass-tinged toe-tappers (“Rocks At Your Window”). But as good as it all is, the highlights here, like the furiously paced “Find Your Way Home,” which benefits from a wicked battlemarch backbeat, or the Uncle Tupelo thrash of “In The Wake Of It All,” both warrant gushing praise. But who are we kidding? It’s all good. The fact of the matter is this San Francisco band’s secret weapon is the interplay between singer/guitarists Pete Frauenfelder and Andrew Kerwin, who, in the midst of a song, not only harmonize beautifully, but have an almost preternatural sense of the where the other one is. Not much ground is broken here in terms of content, as trains and broken hearts and the bluesy stupor of leaving home are typical faire of alternative country, but the Trainwreck Riders give the genre a welcome and traditional shot in the arm.
—Alex Green
(From Amplifier)
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