Red Beet Records

****1/2

Eric Brace, a former journalist turned singer-songwriter, bandleader and record label executive, is one of those unsung guys who remains just below the radar of even the most discerning of music lovers. Yet, he has enjoyed a career in music that stretches back to the early 1990s. Involved in such obscure bands as B-Time, the Beggars, and Kevin Johnson & the Linemen, he brought together the musicians that became Last Train Home in 1996. For a while it was very much a part-time project as an outlet for Eric’s songs, but slowly the band built a formidable following around the Washington DC music scene and beyond. Over the next decade they turned full-time and recorded six albums, a DVD and a few EPs, all of which can best be described as eclectic. In 2004, Brace and bassist Jim Gray and drummer Martin Lynds relocated to Nashville where the band soon established a healthy reputation as one of Music City’s finest roots rock outfits. Eric also teamed up with like-minded music friends including Peter Cooper, Thomm Jutz, Jen Gunderman, Mike Auldridge and Jimmy Gaudreau. With current and former Last Train Home band members spread far and wide across America it became more and more difficult to both get together for gigs and also undertake recording. In 2019 Eric decided to call upon former members of the band to record a new album. Ten years is a really long time to wait for new music by Long Train Home, but like that first taste of whiskey, it has been well worth it.

DAYTIME HIGHS AND OVERNIGHT LOWS is a sprawling collection of bluesy country, Americana, retro-pop, classic soul and intimate singer-songwriter fayre that showcases the band’s disparate musical influences, all tied together by Eric Brace’s distinctive voice. At times moody, while at others insistently melodic, this is an album of great songs and genuine atmosphere … it’s like happening upon a lost classic in the discount bin and catching a vision of future past. Eric’s voice and tender way with words remains at the forefront of everything his gentle spirit touches, and it’s true to say that the new record finds him in finer voice than perhaps ever before. With tracks alternating between laid-back and intense, dreamy and harshly sobering, this album feels relatable through its honesty.

Opener Sleepy Eyes finds the bright and airy duality between a feel-good pop song and a warm, genuine moment of catharsis in the delightfully upbeat reminisce of a favourite place to be at the end of this life. Alan Brace’s harmonica and Dave Van Allen’s steel guitar come to the fore on the hopeful Caney Fork, with the river taking all of one’s troubles away to the sea. Travelling is a way of life for Last Train Home, both in their working lives and in their songs. Distance And Time explores the agony we all encounter of having to be apart from a loved one in our daily work. The haunting arrangement adds to the vision of a guy cradling a drink and reflecting as another lonely evening unfolds. The heartbreaking Dear Lorraine conjures up a late-night jazz club with its almost jazzy vibe that conjures up echoes of Sweet Lorraine, one of my favourite songs of all time. That’s followed by the rhythmic Happy Is with a little fuzz on the electric guitars and some horns way down in the mix and a soulful lead vocal.

Demonstrating their eclecticism is their inspired reworking of Barry White’s What Am I Gonna Do With You as they take the listener back to a 1970s Northern Soul club. The funky arrangement alternates horns with harmonica and fiery electric guitar riffs to create a great rhythmic dance track. In contrast the twee I Like You is a bouncily infectious song with a chipper enthusiasm reminiscent of pop music’s early 1960s infancy … very pretty and irresistible. Sailor is a testament to the band’s ongoing ability to craft the kind of melody and music that lifts your spirits and even compels you to sing along to the effervescent ear worm, but beneath the surface are darker tones … lay back into this and let it wash over you in gentle waves. Having opened the album with Sleepy Eyes, they close appropriately with Wake Up, We’re In Love, a perfect piece of hooky garage pop so catchy, you don’t realise you’re humming it half an hour later as you’re eased back to 1962 and Chris Montez, Bruce Channel, Tommy Roe and all those long-forgotten gems.

DAYTIME HIGHS AND OVERNIGHT LOWS is an excellent slice of Americana from start to finish. It’s full of clever, compelling stories, set over a quite varied menu of musical styles. A band like Last Train Home are unlikely to feature in any mainstream chart. In fact, you’re unlikely to hear them on mainstream radio (unless you think Bob Harris is mainstream). Eclectic, maybe, but also very accessible and highly recommended, this is a no-frills record that plays to the band’s strengths while reminding listeners just why they’re so damn good in the first place.

www.lasttrainhome.com

January 2020