Bend In the Road [Digipak]

Performer: Mark Stuart & the Bastard Sons (Bastard Sons)
Engineer: Alan Mirikitani
Producer: Alan Mirikitani; Mark Stuart
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Personnel: Randy Mitchell (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar); Mike Turner (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, nylon-string guitar); Mark Stuart (acoustic guitar); Deane Cote, Deane Cote (electric guitar, 12-string guitar); Alan Mirikitani (electric guitar, background vocals); Lars Albrecht (electric guitar); Dennis Caplinger (dobro, mandolin, fiddle); Phil Parlapiano (accordion); Marty Grebb (piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Ted Andreadis (piano); Taras Prodaniuk (acoustic bass, upright bass, electric bass); Vance Hazen, Vance Hazen, Gerald Johnson (electric bass); Jim Adair, Jim Adair, David Raven (drums); Lisa C. Pollock, Wink Keziah, Ted Russell Kamp, Wink Keziah (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Alan Mirikitani. Recording information: DawwgHouse Studios, Burbank, CA (02/2009). After a few albums as frontman of the group Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Mark Stuart issued an album billed to Mark Stuart & the Bastard Sons, Bend in the Road. While the billing might have changed slightly, Stuart's focus remains roots country music. This is alt-country only in the sense that it's outside the commercial country mainstream, as the sound is rooted in classic country forms, particularly honky tonk. Stuart delivers solid stuff along those lines in both exuberant and world-weary veins, but also puts shades of old-timey folk, Western swing, rock, and Tex-Mex into his tunes. If the themes of many of the songs are pretty common to this sort of music -- rambling restlessly on the road, heartache, and romantic crushes -- Stuart delivers such goods reliably, though some of the uptempo songs are fairly similar to each other. That makes the reflective sad ballads "Gone Like a Raven" and "Carolina" more melodic standouts in the context of the record as a whole. ~ Richie Unterberger

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