The debut full-length album from The Miners has been a long time coming. It’s taken the best part of a decade to put together the songs on ‘Megunticook’, the follow-up to the 2012 EP ‘Miners’ Rebellion’. Frontman Keith Marlowe explains “‘Megunticook’ is a big step up from Miners’ Rebellion with everything from songwriting, musical performances, production and final output all being at a higher level. The songs, while written over a span of nearly ten years, have the thread of mostly my own personal experiences and feelings and capture the sound of the band I have been developing since taking over as frontman in 2009 (two years after the band’s formation). My songwriting and singing has developed over that time allowing me to expand the band’s sound from ‘Miners’ Rebellion’, though I am still proud of the songs from that EP and those songs fit seamlessly into our live sets alongside ‘Megunticook’s’ tracks. Though I started thinking about the follow up to ‘Miners’ Rebellion’ in 2016 with band lineup changes and life events, it wasn’t until 2018 when demos were finally recorded. As I joke, ‘this seems to have taken longer than Boston’s third album to finally be released’ considering the nine-year span between releases and me talking about our new upcoming album for past three years.”
This gorgeous country ballad is the opening song on the new record and it immediately captures the listener’s attention with close harmonies and the irresistible sliding beauty of Brian Herder’s Dobro and pedal steel. There’s an engaging, disarming sincerity in the lyrics, which carry a real depth of feeling and were inspired by Marlowe’s wife’s diagnosis and subsequent recovery from breast cancer back in 2014. Marlowe’s pure delivery, underpinned by warm backing vocals, does justice to the subject matter. In the accompanying video, premiered here on AUK, Bob Sweeney has managed to capture the band’s skill and musicianship. Together, these excellent players create a rich, full sound and it’s delightful to see them perform.
‘Megunticook’, named after the Maine lake that Marlowe frequently visited as a child, is out now. For fans of authentic country and timeless Americana sounds, The Miners’ debut is a joy. check it out.
