Ghost Hounds “Almost Home”

Southern rock with words of love, loss and heartache, done well.

This is Ghost Hounds’ fifth studio album and the southern rock here has a comforting familiarity starting with the ZZ Top-like opener ‘She Runs Hot’. But if that sounds a bit negative, it has to be said that it is all done to a high standard, with the enjoyable songs on show having great melodies and strong choruses. Elsewhere, there is ‘Broken Roses’ with its Stones-like riff and the blues in ‘Down In The Dark’ reminds you of the Tom Waits track ‘Way Down In The Hole’ used in the opening credits of the TV series The Wire.  The group finishes with a Patty Griffin cover with Griffin contributing vocals.

The band, who have toured with The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Garth Brooks, and Guns N’ Roses have recently introduced new members. The album was written mainly by guitarist Thomas Tull with the rest of the group shaping his ideas in the studio.  There is a good variety of styles and tempos. Various instruments, for example slide guitar, piano, keyboards and fiddle, are used at different times in addition to the standard rock guitars. ‘Eugene’s Trick Bag’, a short instrumental midway through with almost classical violin, goes out on a bit of a limb- it is not your standard stuff from a bunch of southern rockers.

The words in the songs also follow familiar themes from country music and southern rock- love, loss and heartache. However, there is an overarching story to the songs, with a clue in the album title. The group says that “Almost Home delves into the emotional highs and lows of a blue-collar couple’s journey, exploring how they fall in love, build a life together, and eventually grow apart” and that the central theme is what turns a house into a home. So, the first track, about a “hot” woman, doesn’t really reflect the rest of the album, which is more serious and heartfelt.

‘House A Home’ looks back on the couple’s times in their house and the love they shared, with the break-up and the aftermath getting the most attention. ‘Before You Leave’ with Lainey Wilson on vocals is a classic country number, a poignant break-up song and ‘Past The Point of Rescue’ tells of heartache for a lost love. ‘You’ll Never Find Me’ has the man telling the woman that she will miss him and ‘Lonely Last Night’ has a traditional country theme of hoping that an ex-lover isn’t doing so well. The Griffin cover ‘Long Ride Home’, which is an apt finale for the album, is a moving song of the thoughts of one long-term partner at the other’s funeral: “Forty years go by with someone laying in your bed/ Forty years of things you say you wish you’d never said/ How hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead/ I wonder as I stare up at the sky turning red”

If you like southern rock at all, it is a racing certainty that you will enjoy the words and particularly the music on this album.