This self released debut album came in 2006 so this review is long overdue. However, since the band also have an album scheduled for later in 2008, perhaps it is not so untimely.
Truckstop Coffee are a four-piece from Lake Worth, Florida. This album was partly recorded in October 2005 in southern Florida and partly in Knoxville, Tennessee. They describe it as an album of opposites by which I take to mean that there is a paradox at its heart.
On the one hand, there are rollicking Redneck Underground style songs which establish a hell for leather existential urgency to the music. The lyrics for these revolve around the desperate need to get clear of the stifling restrictions of a rural community. 'Punch Me In The Face', for example, defiantly challenges anyone to try to stand in the way of this 'escape' "We gotta get there before we get old" is the rallying cry.
Other, more reflective songs, offer a flipside view that the grass is not always greener elsewhere. On 'Madison County', moving from the red dirt roads to the shiny boulevards of California means confronting people who stare instead of smile. An even more explicit homage to country comforts is a Meat Puppets-like song called 'Stopping For Bullets' in which the proposed demolition of a 200 year farmhouse meets with an ‘over my dead body’ warning from singer Pete Stein including a threat to shoot "the first man who tries to fire up that CAT".
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A weakness of the record is that the no frills approach means that there's not much in the way of subtlety. This is partly compensated by sterling work from the guest musicians ("a few gentlemen from Tennessee")who flesh out the guitar/bass/drum thrash effectively. In particular, Kevin Moore on fiddle creates a Whiskeytown feel to a couple of slower songs - A Little Too Close' and 'Longer To Stay'.
For the most part this is an above average honest roots rock. Like Steve Earle without the soapbox.
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