Utah band on a roll with their second ‘comeback’ album after a 15-year hiatus.
You feel as though you should showcase this band in our Feature article More People Really Should Know About..…because, despite the fact that they have been around more than 20 years, their name is nothing like a household one, and it should be!! They have just released their 6th album (a 15 year hiatus, when life took over for a while, accounts for the limited release schedule) but this is a band that writes great catchy songs (many of them singalong earworms!), sung by the main songwriter Mica Johnson, with some superb harmonies from the other band members Nate Semerad and Mike DiGregorio.
The guys met at college years ago in Salt Lake City, Utah and formed the band in the early 2000s. They quickly delivered four albums of well-crafted folk-inspired americana (with some blues, country and pop influences), which all received favourable reviews, citing strong songwriting, very competent musicianship and some great harmonies behind Johnson’s lead vocals. The band members themselves christened the music ‘porch rock’, a kind of concept maybe designed to differentiate themselves from other bands, with music to listen to and sing along with outside the house – americana with a variety of outside influences. The first three were recorded in Southern California where the band had relocated to – for the fourth they returned to Utah, and produced a rootsier sound.
And then, nothing. The guys went their separate ways, not a group break up, just a hiatus without real explanation, until 15 years later when they released a strong album of new material We Are All Around Us in 2023, reviewed very favourably by Paul Russell for AUK here, diving into more personal issues and benefitting from more experience in terms of arrangements, genre bending and singing – Johnson’s voice sounded more weathered and deep. Paul’s review ended with the words ‘More please’ – and here is more in the same vein, the very fine Counting Sand, recorded in the Quigloo, a kind of family cabin in the mountains outside Salt Lake City.
Straight out of the traps, the band launches into the irresistibly catchy and cinematic No Forgiveness, a high-octane earworm, starting with a folksy acoustic guitar and some Western movie whistle, then that outstanding voice, as Johnson dives into the first verse, before a chorus of great harmonies from the other members of the band and jangling guitars join in support. And from there, it is one lovely song after the other, in which influences from earlier decades come thick and fast: (think Jayhawks, maybe some earlier Eagles or several 60/70s bands or doo-wop choruses). There is the gorgeous title track with its retro harmonies (one of a small number of songs echoing life’s limited cycle), the lilting Danny Shades, a fascinating song about a ticket tout, then the sparkling ballad of regrets, Mean it This Time: “I been meaning to get to that / I been meaning to call you back / I been meaning to tell you why I’m gone again / I knew this day would come / You would have to cut and run / After everything I did, hell I would a done the same thing”.
Up next is the stunning ballad Nothing Left To Save with its echoes of Will Hoge’s best song Goodnight/Goodbye. Local Utah artist Michelle Moonshine plays the Ashley Monroe part with some distinction. The serious songs are mixed with outliers like Fishin’ Song with its silly but infectious singalong chorus, or Sing It Like, in which layperson singers are told to sing John Denver or Willie Nelson songs the ‘right way’. Local singer-songwriter Morgan Snow adds verses and harmonies to this one: “Drivin down the highway / I saw a woman in the fast lane / Singing Willie Nelson I gotta say something / She can’t get away / So, I tell her at the next light / You ain’t singing that right”. Or Drive Thru Jesus, where Jesus is imagined serving up the USA’s favourite meal of burger, Pepsi and fries, while I Write The Songs explains the writing process (and has glorious counterpoint harmonies in front of a screaming electric guitar) and Boxes Galore has some clever lyrics about memories, on which each of the band takes a turn on the verses. The third local talent to be invited on the album is the smooth-voiced Meggan Waltman, who adds subdued but very effective harmonies on the folk – blues ballad Fire on You and Me.
But it’s all infectious melodies, lovely choruses (with resemblances to Sons of the Desert on Lee Ann Womack’s I Hope You Dance), and beautiful playing with DiGregorio on bass and keyboards, and Semerad on guitars, whether its the acoustic kickstart to most of the songs or the jangly electric backing (plus steel and slide)– no long solos, just scintillating riffs; and those harmonies!
For the most part the songs reflect life’s experiences with its ups and downs, with some self-evident truths about life itself, such as the closer Take it from the Top, “Give only my best when / The damage is done / When the race can’t be won / When I can’t beat the clock / I’ll just take it from the top”. And it ends with a solitary line “I wish it all was a dry run“.
This is a very fine band that should be much better known than they are. It’s not beaking new ground lyrically or musically but those earworms galore – try not to sing along! Brilliant.
