Weightily described as career-defining, this LA singer-songwriter's third album has a mellow boogie swagger with distinct echoes of Little Feat and Lynyrd Skynrd.
Morrow's grizzled vocals belie his relative youth as the 27-year-old displays the fruits garnered from a full emersion in country learning.
It begins in disconsolate, yet rocking, fashion with Heartbreak Man while tracks like Paid By The Mile and Cigarettes merit the dubious genre label of 'funky tonk'.
Skinny Elvis is a duet with Jaime Wyatt and features some fine pedal steel from Jay Dee Maness who once played on The Byrds 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo' album.
The restless energy of this song is evoked by the line "the engine's running, hop on in" but this carefree mood is balanced by the bluesy San Fernando Sunshine and the brooding murder ballad The Weight Of A Stone.
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The raunchy Quick Fix treats sex in a business-like and unromantic manner ("don't got time to listen and I ain't got much to say") and Good Ole Days is a high energy Texas country romp.
In all ten tunes there's a nicely judged range of pace and mood although all of it is a homage to 70s/80s country-rock.
It marks Sam Morrow as a man unrepentantly out of time and means that this record is one which will primarily appeal to students of the old-school.
Sam Morrow's website
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