If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry

Performer: Marah
Engineer: Matt Boynton; Steve Rosenthal
Producer: Marah
Distributor: Redeye Music Distribution

Notes: Marah: Adam Garbinski (guitar); Dave Petersen (drums); Kirk Henderson , Mike Brenner. Philadelphia-based band Marah lets it all hang out on IF YOU DIDN'T LAUGH YOU'D CRY. Knocked out in the studio in a short amount of time (the songs were all recorded in one or two takes), the album has an irreverence and vitality that comes across immediately. Marah's music is a delicious mix of genres--with traces of country, folk, old-school R&B, punk, and roots rock--and the combination works, in large part, because of the urgency with which the band members throw themselves into the performances. Like Bruce Springsteen (who guested on 2002's FLOAT AWAY WITH THE Friday NIGHT GODS) or literate bar-rockers the Hold Steady, Marah's lyrics are likewise part of the appeal, and it all comes together beautifully on this rollicking, good-time mess of a record.

Mojo (Publisher) (p.124) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[M]arked by personal damage, loneliness and the yearning for redemption....The work ethic lends the disc an unaffected honesty and directness."

Philadelphia-bred roots-rockers Marah have had a career distinguished by two things: one, an unselfconsciously classic-rock approach to their craft that, since the mid-1990s, has bucked any of the trends of the day; and two, an ability to attract powerful champions while maintaining indie cred. Formed around the nucleus of brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko, the band released their first album on a small label in '98, and got the attention of Steve Earle, who released the follow-up on his E-Squared Records. Oasis producer Owen Morris, generally reluctant to work with Americans, helmed the next album, on which Bruce Springsteen guested, and writers Nick Hornby and Stephen King have both raved in print about their music. Despite all the public praise, by their eighth studio release in 2008 the band was still proudly independent.

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