Heritage

The Youngers

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 9, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Obuck Records
• ASIN: B001F2U6WO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #218,952 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Produced by John Carter Cash at the legendary Cash cabin in Tennessee, Heritage is the follow up album to Output. It's full of chiming guitars, anthemic choruses, soaring harmonies and story songs of working and hard life blues. Special guests include John Carter Cash (percussion), Laura Cash (fiddle), Ronnie McCoury of The Del McCoury Band (mandolin), and legendary Waylon Jennings' pedal steel player Ralph Mooney.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chiming, tough country-rock Americana, September 22, 2008

By	hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This Pennsylvania quartet's second album opens with a combination of country, rock and ringing guitars so deft you'd be hard-pressed not to hum the verses and sing the chorus their second time around. The lyrics of "Heartbreaker" lash out in the best wounded-but-prideful pop tradition, dragging out the words in enervated late-night heartache. The worn spirit remains for "Heritage," but as the ire of a railroad driver's frustration with an overtaxing, unresponsive government. The song is driven by the drums' steady march beat, with electric guitars adding country-rock grit. Recorded at Johnny Cash's cabin studio (with John Carter Cash producing), the lyrics provide a contrast to the elder Cash's nostalgic songs of railroading, yet still match the man in black's respect for the underclasses. The driver of "Truck Driving Man" is also wearied, fatalistically worn from a working man's pains.

Several of the album's songs suggest open plains and Western landscapes, similar to the Sadies' recent New Seasons CD. A farmer's armed defense of his land in "In the Morning" could just as easily be set a hundred years ago as today, and the gambling drifter/drunk of "Highway 9" could be found wandering a stretch of asphalt or a dusty trail. Bassist Randy Krater steps to the microphone for the country waltz "The Ride," a song whose allusions intertwine a dying love, suicide and the light of the hereafter. More traditional are the honky-tonk broken hearts of "Our Little Secret" and "Right all the Wrongs," the latter a weepy waltz that opens with the drunken, a capella moan "I guess I closed the bar again tonight." Tears rain down from the pedal steel of Ralph Mooney and fiddle of Laura Cash.

The bluegrass edged "Big Ol' Freight Train" sports the more traditional theme of a love taken away, though one has to wonder why the singer's mate was taken away on a freight train. Maybe she's a brakeman or hobo. Two of the band's influences are paid straightforward homage, starting with the tumbling, introspective poetry of "Seat 24" and its melodic reinterpretation of "Mr. Tambourine." This is followed by the E-Street styled "Middle of the Night," replete with wordy, rapid-fire rhymes and a Clarence Clemons inspired sax solo. Each feels like a writing exercise that ended up too close to its source. They're a minor distraction from the band's more original material, Todd Bartolo's engaging vocals and the band's muscular Americana sound. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Album of 2008, November 1, 2008

By	Kyle Carlson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This album has my vote for best album of 2008. There is not a weak song on it. All are great. It is a much needed relief from the crappy music folks are putting out these days.