Daytime Highs & Overnight Lows
Red Beet, 2020
9/10
Listen to Daytime High & Overnight Lows
Starting in the late ‘90s, D.C.’s Last Train Home released a handful of well received albums for about ten years, making quite a name for themselves in the area of roots rock. Having been on hiatus for nearly a decade, in 2019 Eric Brace decided to wrangle up LTH alumni, and together this stunning 7th album was born.
“Sleepy Eyes” starts the listen with upbeat roots rock where warm vocals, shuffling percussion and fluid banjo highlight the mild blue grass setting, and “Caney Fork” follows with aching pedal steel in the more country focused delivery.
An album with incredible musicianship and an equally luminous execution, “Floodplains” flows with soothing and moving rural beauty, while “Hudson River” enters ballad territory amid expressive vocal harmonies. “I Like You”, one of the best of the best, offers us a charming folk song with sweet wordplay that you’ll have a hard time getting off your mind.
Near the end, horns enter the equation on the bouncy “Sailor” and “Wake Up, Were In Love” recruits strategic keys in the jangly, retro-fun, that’s a curiously unexpected exit on a record that’s largely under the Americana umbrella.
A roots rock record that’s not like any other you’ve heard, Brace is a fine songwriter, and the banjos, mandolins, horns and pedal steel help make this comeback album well worth spending an hour with.
Travels well with: Randy Lewis Brown- Red Crow; Ben Davis Jr.- Suthernahia