1. Storms
2. Bread And Water
3. Mourning Flies
4. Long Way To Go
5. The Good Life
6. In The Basement
7. Water Fountain Quicksand
8. Goat
9. Said What You Mean
10. Way Of The Buffalo
11. 'Neath The Stars
12. hidden track
Total Time 58.1 minutes
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The Good Life
Railroad Earth
Sugar Hill Records
If the Ozark Mountain Daredevils had been bluegrass-rock instead of country-rock, they might have sounded like this.
Railroad Earth whips up a mean acoustic stew, with guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo, upright bass and drums. Occasionally the New Jersey sextet throws in dobro, ukelele, bouzouki, accordion, harmonica, harmonium, Hammond organ, piano, saxes and flute.
Story has it Todd Sheaffer, former singer/songwriter for From Good Homes, was invited by a couple of the other guys in 2001 to jam at an open-mic night sponsored by the Pocono Bluegrass Society. Within a few weeks, they had formed Railroad Earth; recorded some demos; and were scheduled to play the Telluride, Grey Fox and High Sierra music festivals before they had even played a formal gig.
The band developed a following; audience recordings of concerts began appearing on the Internet; and within a year of being formed, they released their first album.
“The Good Life” is the group’s third and strongest album yet. Sheaffer’s folksy lyrics and singing uniquely complement the group’s string-band-on-steroids attack, which every so often yields to a sentimental ballad or melancholy reel reminiscent of the early Waterboys.
But a song is worth a thousand words: Check out some of the above-mentioned Internet concerts at the Live Music Archive.
external links
artist's web site
amazon.com
iTunes Music Store
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